


Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers

by the_writer1988



Series: Understanding The Real Hero [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Hurt Tony Stark, Not Steve Friendly, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pro-Sokovia Accords, Things will get better for Team Cap as the story goes along, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, avengers watch the movies, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 54,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28671510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_writer1988/pseuds/the_writer1988
Summary: With two movies now under their belts, the Avengers find themselves viewing their very first mission, only to find that their own mistakes are being brought out into the open in addition to Tony's.For Tony, this is a bit of relief following the viewings of Iron Man and Iron Man 2. But it doesn't mean he will enjoy watching this one either.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Understanding The Real Hero [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1796896
Comments: 886
Kudos: 933





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! It's 2021! And, it is the start of the next story in my series of 'Understanding the Real Hero'! 
> 
> I promised to start posting today and I've kept it. 
> 
> I hope everyone had a good Christmas as they could in these circumstances and hopefully, 2021, will start to be a lot better. Especially with vaccines now out. The UK is now back in lockdown again and I've been off work since 20th December. I'm covered until mid-February at the moment, and though I am a priority group for a vaccine due to my health conditions, I have yet to receive it, mainly because my consultants won't say whether I can have it or not! 
> 
> Making a lot of progress on this fic was hampered over the last few weeks due to my brother being diagnosed with Covid-pneumonia and being in hospital as he required oxygen. He is only 38 and there is a lot of people thinking it's still an old-person's illness. It really isn't! It's been quite a scary time. He is recovering now but has been understandably scary and worrying for us all. Please do what you can to protect others, do not take Covid for granted just because you are young, you will be fine. That isn't always the case! 
> 
> The good news is, is that I do have a few chapters backlogged. I'm just finishing off writing chapter three, and I hope to potentially have written the rest of this fic by the end of January. Updates will remain weekly for now as I do not want to run out of chapters to post. 
> 
> Please do, enjoy, the first chapter to The Avengers!

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**One**

Tony sipped from his coffee mug, enjoying the sweet taste of it bubbling in his mouth, his mind focused elsewhere as he didn’t notice Rhodey coming up behind him.

“How are you doing?” queried Rhodey, leaning against the counter, watching his friend carefully with a piercing gaze.

Tony shrugged. “As well as I can be considering the circumstances. It’s not exactly fun watching your entire life play out on screen. No one should have ever seen what happened to me in Afghanistan… and now…” he sighed, his frustration bubbling at the surface. “They all know.”

Rhodey knew better than to hug Tony. That was more of a Pepper thing. “Maybe some good will come out of this? Wanda likes you now. Two movies ago she didn’t like you.”

There was that. “I suspect this is being done with good intentions but it is all about _me_.” Tony clenched his fists. “No one else.”

“To be fair, the next one includes the others,” Rhodey pointed out. “You might get a chance to criticise them for a change…”

Tony laughed humorously. He wasn’t sure if he would take the opportunity to do that or not. “If I did, I’d be as bad as them.” He leaned back against the counter. “Tell me. How do you think Rogers will take seeing his actions during the Civil War?”

“Badly, I reckon, especially if the others on his team have already swayed from him.” Rhodey leaned forward. “Surprised me really… He told me he trusts you.”

Tony looked incredulous. “Now that I find hard to believe.”

“He seemed… sincere. I’ve told him if he wants to make amends, he needs to prove it,” explained Rhodey. “He’ll do something… ‘Steveish’ I guess.”

“Steveish?” Tony queried, a slight smile tugging at his lips. 

“You know… where he does his thing of opening his mouth and… you know…” Rhodey urged, “…trying to talk sense and failing miserably? Like he has been doing through these two movies?”

“Oh. Right.” Tony could see what Rhodey meant.

Rhodey sighed. “But I think he realises he’s done you wrong, Tones… I think he wants to try to make amends.”

“I’m not sure I can forgive him,” answered Tony quietly, looking down at the floor. Steve had hurt him badly, had kept his parent’s murder a secret, and his own actions by not agreeing with the Accords had torn the team apart. Tony had been left with nothing.

Rhodey and Vision didn’t really count.

The people Tony had thought were his friends, had begun to trust had turned against him and done the opposite of what he had hoped they would do. The team had broken apart. Would they still have his back now? Or would he have to keep watching out for himself, not being able to rely on anyone but himself?

“I think if there was anyone, I could trust… other than you or Vision…” Tony began thoughtfully, “it would be Sam and Wanda. I’m surprised by how open-minded Sam has been and how he is analysing each action I take and seeing the reason why I did things. Wanda… she’s taken a step forward, realised she was wrong about me… and taken steps to make amends. I’m not ready to trust them fully just yet… but I think they’d have my back now more than they once would have done.”

Rhodey nodded, agreeing with Tony’s assessment. “I know you do not like this situation.”

“You’re right, I don’t,” growled Tony.

“But I think it may be a good thing in the long run. Whatever happens in the future must be bad that we’re going to watch it to try to change it. It’s… mad.” Rhodey shook his head. “Honestly, when I woke up this morning, this wasn’t what I expected to do with my day.”

Tony snorted. “Agreed.” He took another swag of coffee, downing the rest of the cup. He cleaned it out and put it to the side by the sink. “At least we’re let out of the room occasionally.”

“I’m not sure you’d be able to live without your coffee,” grinned Rhodey, folding his arms over his chest.

Tony laughed. “You could be right.” He started to walk back to the room only to turn back and glance at the fridge. “We’ve been in there for over four hours now. Think we should take some food back with us? Time is still passing for us even if it will only end up being ten seconds outside this building.”

“I am a bit peckish…” Rhodey opened the fridge. “We’ve got an array of food here. Enough to feed us.” He started to bring out cold meats, cheese, and pickles, whilst Tony reached into the cupboard to get some plates and then grabbed a loaf of bread before they both started to head back to the room. “Hey, Tones?”

“Yeah?”

“I know this is hard for you… And… I know how what happened in New York really affected you…”

Tony stiffened. They’d see what he saw through the wormhole… He tried to keep a neutral expression on his face but knew he’d failed.

“Sorry… Shouldn’t have bought it up,” muttered Rhodey, “I just wanted you to know I’m here for you if you need it.”

Tony swallowed his pride. “I’ll be fine. Really!”

Rhodey didn’t look too sure but Tony had already reached the entrance to the room they were in and had opened it and passed through.

The others looked up as Tony walked into the viewing room.

“We bought food; in case anyone is hungry.” Tony glanced around. “No table… huh.”

“Just put it on the floor in front of us,” directed Steve. “You’ve got plates and utensils. We’ll get what we want and start the next movie.”

Tony glanced towards the screen. The next disc sat ready to go in. A slight nervousness pulled at his tummy. _Don’t be silly, Tony. You’re here. You survived._ He was more afraid of seeing through the wormhole again would trigger his anxiety attacks. He rarely suffered them now but after the event, they had become pretty common in his life for a while, until he had managed to get things under control.

Tony made himself a quick sandwich as the others crowded around creating their own. Once they were all settled, in the same places as before, Tony motioned for the next disc to begin. _Let’s get this over with._

**Burning blue flames covered the screen as a smoky cube shape emerged. It was the Tesseract. The screen changed to see a clothed armoured figure kneeling behind a throne. A menacing, croaky voice narrated over the shots.**

**“The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world. A human world. They would wield its power… But our ally knows its workings at they never will. He is ready to lead.”**

“Thor… It’s a long shot, but do you recognise any of this? We know that was the Tesseract…” asked Bruce cautiously.

“That, I believe, is The Other, a servant of Thanos,” answered Thor. “I’ve never had the pleasure to meet The Other but he is devoted to Thanos. Loki never said… But I had thought he had been acting on orders of Thanos when he attacked Earth.”

Tony shivered at the name ‘Thanos’. He didn’t know why. Just the name gave him a sense of foreboding. 

“Who is Thanos?” Steve queried.

Thor’s expression was stony. “A madman. I hope none of you ever get to meet him.”

Tony had a feeling they would be one day. He wasn’t sure he would be ready for it if they were to meet.

**Loki appeared, being handed the Sceptre by the shadowy, cloaked presence.**

**“And our force, our Chitauri, will follow.”**

**There was a shot of thousands of Chitauri soldiers, ready for war.**

Tony closed his eyes. The visage of the Portal appeared in his mind’s eye and his heart-rate increased. _Don’t panic. You’re not there._ Through the Portal he had seen hundreds of warriors, advancing towards the Portal and Earth. Seeing the magnitude of what they had faced had set off his anxiety and panic attacks. He had needed to prepare because they had found a way to attack Earth once before, and being far more advanced than them, it was likely they would return to finish the job.

He couldn’t rest until he was sure Earth was safe.

“Tony?” asked Rhodey quietly. “You alright?”

Tony nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine.” He forced himself to open his eyes and rubbed a hand over his weary eyes, trying to hide his anxiety from the others.

**The mysterious voice continued. “The world will be his. The universe yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?”**

“They underestimated us,” puffed out Steve. “We showed them not to take us for granted.”

“We were lucky we had Tony though,” said Bruce. “We won because of him.”

“It was a team effort,” said Steve. “If Tony hadn’t been there, we still would have won.” 

Tony bit his lip. Yes, the others had helped hold the army back but they wouldn’t have been able to defeat them entirely. Would closing the Portal have cut the connection to the army? Destroying the station in space had stopped the army completely in its tracks but would the signal to the army have continued after the Portal had been closed?

But Bruce wasn’t having any of it. “What would you have done about the missile?”

Steve blanched. “I... I… Thor or the Hulk could…”

“Really?” Bruce folded his arms across his chest. “You think the Hulk could have dealt with it?” He shook his head, silently laughing at Steve’s mistake. “The Hulk is more likely to set it off then throw it far enough away for it to no longer be a threat.” Bruce glanced at Thor. “Not sure on Thor but he wasn’t up to speed with humans back then.”

Thor agreed. “I would have probably used my hammer to whack it out of the sky or tried to direct it higher over the city.”

“Without Tony, even if you had closed the Portal, the missile would have killed us all,” finished Bruce. “There is a reason why all these movies are to do with Tony. You don’t recognise what he has done for the world and what he continues to do. You put him down and you look for excuses to convince yourself we didn’t need him in the first place when all the evidence points to the fact we do!”

Steve had the graciousness to look ashamed. But he couldn’t apologise for his assertions despite Bucky giving him his best glare. 

**The Tesseract appeared on screen again, moving towards them, covering the entire screen before the scene changed.**

**A helicopter flew over the land towards a SHIELD facility. As the helicopter came into land, the personnel of the facility had been ordered to evacuate.**

**Phil Coulson waited for the helicopter to land, dropping off Maria Hill and Nick Fury. Fury’s coat flew out behind him as the propellers of the helicopter continued to spin. Fury asked how bad the situation was but Coulson didn’t know.**

“Very bad,” quipped Clint. “They had no idea what they were walking into.”

“None of us did,” said Natasha quietly. 

**They were now walking through the facility, passing fleeing technicians who were taking only the essential items they needed.**

**Coulson explained Selvig had read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago. Fury noted that NASA hadn’t authorised Selvig to go to test phase. Coulson admitted Selvig hadn’t been testing it as he hadn’t been in the room. It had been a spontaneous advancement. Fury asked what the energy levels were and Coulson clarified that they were climbing, that they had tried to shut it down but couldn’t so had ordered an evacuation. Fury wanted to know how long they had to get everyone out. Coulson said it would be in the next half hour. Fury wanted them to do better. Coulson nodded and turned back.**

“They tried turning off the power, right?” Tony assumed they would have done so but then SHIELD had done some silly things over the years.

Clint nodded. “They did. The Tesseract turned it back on. It’s like it had a mind of its own.”

**Hill and Fury continued walking further into the facility, down a long set of winding stairs.**

**Hill commented evacuation may be futile. Fury asked if they should tell them to go back to sleep. Hill continued, stating that there may not be a minimum safe distance if they couldn’t control the Tesseract’s energy. Fury ordered her to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes were shipped out. Hill queried whether if that was a priority right now.**

Steve frowned. “I would have thought the priority was evacuating everyone rather than save their projects…?” He wasn’t surprised as he had found Phase 2 prototypes on board the Helicarrier. Were the projects more important than human life? His allure with SHIELD had faded, especially after learning they had long been infiltrated by HYDRA. He’d learned a powerful lesson that day: you couldn’t trust anyone.

“Phase 2 was an important part of their plans going forward,” said Clint.

“HYDRA’s plan or SHIELD’s?” stated Steve, his eyes thinning slightly.

Clint flinched. “Probably more HYDRA’s in the end…”

**“Until such a time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone,” stated Fury.**

Steve shook his head. He clearly wasn’t happy with Fury’s orders.

**Hill accepted the orders and walked off, ordering a few agents to follow her as Fury proceeded further down into the depths of the facility.**

**Fury entered the radiation facility housing the Tesseract. The area was cluttered with machines and a few people were leaving. Fury strode towards Dr. Erik Selvig. Fury asked him if there was anything they knew for certain. Selvig stated the Tesseract was misbehaving.**

**“Is that supposed to be funny?” asked Fury.**

Tony rolled his eyes. “What made Fury think it was a joke? Selvig didn’t look like he was joking!”

“Maybe he was expecting a more serious response?” observed Sam, frowning slightly. “Misbehaving is an odd word to use to describe the situation.”

Clint shook his head. “Not from my observations. I was there in the room. It wasn’t doing what it was supposed to. It was misbehaving.”

**Fury and Selvig walked together back towards the machine holding the Tesseract. “** **No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's... misbehaving.”**

“See!” Tony pointed out. “A valid way to describe what’s happening. I’ve used the word a few times myself when my own creations go wrong.”

“I thought you created things perfectly, Stark?” muttered Clint.

Tony glared at the Archer. “Not always.” Clint seemed to like him one minute and the next switch sides and not like him. He wondered how long it would take Clint to get over himself. If Wanda could see she was wrong, why couldn’t Clint, who had worked with Tony for years? It baffled the genius, but then it wasn’t like he could see Clint’s thoughts and discern what he was really thinking.

Clint seemed to realise his error and looked away.

**Fury wanted to know how soon it would be until they could pull the plug.**

**Selvig explained that as the Tesseract was an energy source if they turned the power off, the Tesseract turned it back on. If the device reached a peak level... Fury told him they had prepared for this eventuality by harnessing energy from space.**

“Trouble was, it wasn’t ready,” sighed Natasha. “They had prepared for it, but the device itself was not ready to be implemented.”

“And the Tesseract had gone too far for the energy to be harnessed in time,” added Clint.

**Selvig stated they didn’t have the harness and that their calculations were far from complete, and that the Tesseract was throwing off interference and radiation. Nothing was harmful, only low levels of gamma radiation.**

**“That can be harmful,” remembered Fury.**

Bruce raised his hand. “I can attest to that. Though mine were high levels of gamma radiation… even low levels have the potential to cause harm.”

**“Where’s Barton?”**

**Selvig scoffed. “The Hawk?” He pointed up and behind him. “Up in his nest, as usual.”**

Clint glared at the screen. “He didn’t really like me spying up there. It was my job! I had better eyesight above further away than closer.” 

**Above in the rafters perched Clint Barton, dressed in black tactical gear, up on the railings, watching everything below. Fury ordered Clint to report. He is seen rappelling down from the catwalk.**

**Fury told him he had given Clint this detail so he could keep a close eye on things.**

Natasha smirked. “Fury never liked it when he wanted Clint to keep an eye on things, he was always higher up. Would have thought he’d be used to you doing that by now considering the amount of times you’ve done it.”

**Clint defended his position as he could see better from a distance. Fury asked him if he had seen anything that may have set the Tesseract off.**

“Had you seen anything?” asked Vision.

Clint shook his head. “No. If I recall correctly, I already have a theory about what’s happening. Might be coming up.”

**A female scientist informed Selvig that the Tesseract was spiking again. Clint explained to Fury that he had seen no one come or go, ruling out any tampering done to the Tesseract when it was not being observed by the scientists. Clint theorised if there was any tampering, it hadn’t been done on their end.**

Tony wanted to make a smart comment and nearly managed to resist. “Well, well, the bird-brain does have some deductible skills.”

Clint opened his mouth to reply but Rhodey spoke up first.

“I think Tony has earned the right to comment considering the number of nasty things you’ve said over the last two movies.” Rhodey gave his best glare to the Archer.

“He has a point, Clint,” whispered Steve, urging him not to respond to Tony’s taunt.

Gritting his teeth, Clint nodded. “Fine.”

**“At this end?” Fury looked concerned.**

**“Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? The door is open from both sides.”**

**Selvig typed hurriedly on his keyboard and the monitor flashed. Suddenly, the Tesseract thunders and shakes the entire facility. Both Agent Coulson and Maria Hill, who were topside, felt the tremors. The Tesseract is crackling and spurting energy, getting brighter and brighter before it emits a ring of blue light, and builds a beam, travelling forwards, hitting the edge of the platform, beginning to form a vortex, before becoming a portal.**

“At this point you should all be running,” groaned Bruce. “Not staying to watch.”

Thor nodded, agreeing with Bruce’s assertion. “You were lucky Loki was the only one who came through.” 

**They could see space through it, and a gust of blue energy knocked people back as the cloud shoots to the ceiling, dissipating and fading as quickly as it had appeared.**

**At the centre of what had been the endpoint of the beam, crouched a figure, smoke rising around the figure as the SHIELD soldiers slowly approached.**

**The figure slowly rose and the identity of the figure was revealed. It was Loki, with a menacing grin on his face, and in his right hand, he held what looked like a spear. There were dark circles under his eyes.**

“Don’t you think he looks tired?” observed Tony. 

“None of you know what Loki went through before he came here,” answered Thor quietly.

“Doesn’t matter,” grated Clint. “I still want to kill him.”

Thor stood from his seat. “Don’t you –”

But Bruce tucked on his arm. “Don’t. They don’t know him as we do.”

Tony mused. “Loki is with you, right?”

Bruce nodded. “Yeah. Back on the ship where we were before coming here.”

“But… didn’t Thor tell us Loki was dead?” remembered Tony. “When we were hunting HYDRA for the sceptre, Thor told us he was dead.”

Thor flinched. “Yeah, he faked his death. Pretended to be our father and sent our father to a home on Earth somewhere whilst he ruled Asgard.”

“And… you are okay that he did that?” Tony felt baffled.

“We’ve been through a lot…” cautioned Thor. “He… changed.”

“Though he can still be a Trickster,” admitted Bruce. “It’s complicated… When we get a chance to, we will explain it.”

Tony nodded. He knew the others were a lot more cautious. He still was too. But even he could see Loki’s first appearance in this movie, his facial expressions and the colour of his face indicated something more was at work.

“Just keep him away from me,” stated Clint, eyes narrowing.

**Fury called to Loki. “Sir, please put down the spear!”**

**Loki glanced at the spear, which had blue energy emanating from the top of it, and then, moving quickly, let out a surge of blue energy from the sceptre. Clint tackled Fury out the way.**

“Nice save,” praised Natasha, smiling at Clint.

The Archer shrugged his shoulders. “Couldn’t let him get shot, could I?”

**Loki attacked the guards, killing them one by one in different creative ways. He blasted the scientists out the way. Bullets deflected off of Loki, and soon every attacker was down, either injured, dead or dying. Loki paused, glancing around, looking for his next attacker.**

**Clint scrambled to his feet and Loki advanced, stopping the archer from firing his gun by grabbing his wrist.**

“I couldn’t break away. His grip on my wrist was steel.” Clint shuddered, his mind trying to forget the feeling he’d felt when the sceptre had been used on him, on how its power had invaded his heart and taken control of him, putting him under the control of Loki. He’d still been aware of everything he had done but been unable to stop himself.

“Clint… it's not your fault,” said Steve. “Loki was a force none of us ever expected to face. You were lucky to survive his arrival. He could have easily killed you too.”

“I know. Doesn’t stop the guilt. All these years later it can still come back and haunt me.” Clint bowed his head. “Never again.” 

**Loki peered into Clint’s face. “You have heart.”**

**Fury watches silently as Loki placed the tip of the sceptre on Clint’s chest. His eyes glow black and then bluey misty – the colour of the Tesseract – and Clint stops resisting, placing his gun back in his holster at his hip. He stands straight, staring unseeing at his captor.**

Clint shivered. He’d hated every moment of being enslaved to Loki.

**As Loki began going around the room to control the survivors, Fury reached for the Tesseract, and placed it in a briefcase, and started to calmly walk away, attempting to sneak out.**

Thor sighed. “Loki would have known what he was doing the moment he started removing the Tesseract. He let him put it in the case.”

“And, I think, broadly walking away was a big hint too even if Loki hadn’t noticed,” noted Sam. 

**However, Loki had noticed. “Please don’t. I still need that.”**

**Fury turned to face Loki and said the situation didn’t need to get any messier.**

**Loki disagreed. “Of course, it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.”**

Clint scoffed. “Glorious purpose?”

“I don’t think Earth would have prospered under his rule,” added Tony.

“He means the task he was given,” explained Thor. “His glorious purpose was to subjugate Earth and being the Tesseract to Thanos.”

That name again and a shiver travelled down Tony’s spine.

“Why did this Thanos want the Tesseract?” asked Steve.

Thor frowned. “Loki never said. I don’t think he knew why. Just that is what Thanos wanted.”

Tony didn’t say it aloud but he had a feeling they would find out eventually. _Whoever this Thanos is, I never want to meet him._

**Selvig, who was tending to one of his unconscious colleagues, recognised the name. “Loki? Brother of Thor?”**

“How did Selvig know of you?” Sam seemed surprised by the revelation.

“I met Selvig when I was first here,” revealed Thor. “He’s one of my closest friends. He’d never met Loki but had heard of him through me.”

**“We have no quarrel with your people,” said Fury.**

**“An ant has no quarrel with a boot.”**

**“You’re planning to step on us?” Fury accused.**

“Squash us,” muttered Clint.

**Loki paced in front of his enslaved workforce. “I come with glad tidings, of a world made free.”**

Tony rolled his eyes. “More like a world of slavery.”

**“Free from what?” Fury wanted to know.**

**“Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart...” Loki turned toward Selvig and placed the sceptre against Selvig’s chest.**

“That isn’t a way to rule,” grated Steve. “People deserve to have freedom, to do what they want! To live their lives how they wish to!”

Tony couldn’t resist making a point. “True, but what about the wishes of people who want to decide who can operate within their borders or not?”

Steve tried to backtrack. “That’s…that’s… not the point I was trying to make.”

Tony smirked. “Can’t give people complete freedom, Rogers. Life doesn’t work like that and never will. We all have to live by rules, from the moment we are born to the moment we die. If we have no rules what will become of the world?”

“Chaos,” interjected Sam. “A world without rules is one we cannot let happen.” Sam leaned back. “There are things wrong with the Accords. But they are worth a second look.”

Steve didn’t look happy. “Maybe. It is something to consider.”

**Selvig flinched, gasped and his eyes glowed black.**

**Fury wasn’t fooled. “Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing.”**

Clint glared at the screen. “We all know he did mean the other thing.

**Behind Fury, the energy cloud from the Tesseract’s burst of power was rapidly building up.**

**“Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us,” warned Clint.**

**“** **Like the Pharaohs of Odin.” Fury slightly smirked.**

“A statistically sound plan,” praised Vision, “but one wrought with a lot of logistical problems if it failed.”

“And, it did fail,” pointed out Rhodey.

“I know,” confirmed Vision. 

**Selvig checked his computer screens.** **“He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical.”**

**Loki glanced at Clint. “Well then.”**

**Without any hesitation, Clint shot Fury who fell to the ground, losing his grip on the suitcase containing the Tesseract. Clint grabbed the case as he left the lab with Loki, Selvig and the other mind-controlled SHIELD personnel.**

Clint looked ashamed and muttered quietly under his breath: “Couldn’t help myself.” He wasn’t looking forward to seeing the rest of his actions under Loki’s control. He knew he had done a lot of questionable stuff. 

**The scene changed as Agent Hill watched the controlled SHIELD personnel gathering weapons and getting ready to leave.**

“Didn’t she notice something was wrong?” asked Steve.

“She did,” observed Natasha. “In this line of work, you have to be careful. She knew something was up the moment they all appeared without Fury.” 

**Clint pointed to the vehicles in the lot, determining that they needed them.**

**Hill wanted to know who Loki was. Clint rebuffed her, saying he wasn’t told. Hill eyed them suspiciously but she started to walk away, with her walkie-talkie in hand.**

**Fury’s voice came over the radio, asking if she copied. Loki and his crew look back at Hill.**

Bucky instantly recognised what was about to happen. “They’re going to try to kill her…”

**In the lab Fury is struggling for breath and continues to speak to Hill over the radio.**

**Hill acted fast, glancing back and seeing Barton fire a bullet at her, had her rolling behind cover, pulling her own gun out and shooting back at the Archer. Barton leapt into the truck, and they made their escape as Hill emerged from cover and fired back at them, failing to hit any targets.**

“If she had stopped them, they would have killed her easily,” sighed Steve.

Clint nodded solemnly, agreeing with the Captain’s observation. “We wouldn’t have been able to stop ourselves.”

**Fury is running out of the lab, holding his side. He’s yelling over the radio that they have the Tesseract and to track it down. Behind him, the energy discharge from the Tesseract is building up by the ceiling, rumbling and growing recklessly, destroying structures and cracking the walls.**

Tony had a sudden thought. “Wanda. Do you think you may have been able to hold back the energy surge?”

Surprised by the question, Wanda frowned. “Maybe…” She looked at her hands. “I’m still learning about my powers. And how to use them… but it’s possible? Why?”

“Just a thought… maybe something for the future to consider. If anyone can hold back that amount of energy it’s you. You just need to learn how to control it and let it loose when it is safe to do so,” explained Tony.

Wanda realised he was referring to Lagos when she had tried to stop the human bomb from going off and had failed to contain it, resulting in hundreds of injuries and deaths when the bomb had exploded close to a residential building. It had devastated her. “But after last time…”

“You can do it.” Tony was adamant about it. “I believe you could do it.”

She smiled gratefully at him, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

**Hill jumped into a Jeep and chased after Clint’s entourage.**

**Several other cars and trucks had already begun attacking Loki’s vehicle, trying to force them to stop. Loki used the sceptre to blast energy at his pursuers, blasting through the windscreen of the car, spinning it onto its roof, and then blocking the road so other pursuit vehicles could not continue onward.**

**Down below Fury is racing against the clock as pipes burst around him. The walls are cracking, and the facility is suffering an internal earthquake. Electricity sparks everywhere as the ceiling starts to fall apart.**

“Fury was lucky he made it out,” commented Natasha. “The roof could have collapsed at any moment.”

**Coulson was with a group of soldiers who were carrying cases down the steps. The resulting shudder of the ground causes them all to lose their balance and they dropped the cases on the floor. Coulson ordered them to leave the cases and leave.**

“Finally, someone who saw sense about leaving Phase 2 stuff behind!” Steve almost felt cheerful at seeing Coulson prioritise saving lives than SHIELD’s projects.

**Meanwhile, Hill had used a short-cut to get in front of the truck driven by Clint. She pulled the hand break up and swerved into his way to block their escape. Both Hill and Clint fire on one another as the two trucks clash with Clint’s truck pushing Hill’s backward. They both shoot at one another.**

**Coulson and his group have reached a Jeep. He radios Fury and tells him he is all clear and he needs to go.**

**Fury ran across the tarmac to a helicopter. The ground gave way seconds after the helicopter left the ground, as the earth began to fall into a sinkhole.**

“You were right, Nat, he was lucky,” agreed Sam.

**Still in the tunnel, Hill and Barton are locked together. Clint breaks, swerving his truck to dislodge Hill’s. He succeeds and she spins in front of him as he manages to drive past her. Hill corrected her skid and continued in pursuit of Barton.**

“Doesn’t give up, gotta give her that,” commented Rhodey.

“Hill was always loyal to Fury,” added Natasha quietly.

**Back in the lab, the Tesseract’s energy cloud shrinks into a small ball of light. A blast wave cascaded out with a flash of blue light. The facility is consumed along with its surroundings. Fury watched from above as a rapid build-up led into an implosion.**

**Coulson’s van is making its escape, his eyes focused on the ground as it fell into the sinkhole, with the blast wave on the horizon. The Jeep barely escaped.**

**The tunnel roof gave way and Hill was trapped beneath and debris as Clint’s truck makes it out of the tunnel.**

“That was pure luck you got through before it all fell down,” said Tony. “A few seconds later and Hill would have made it out too.”

**Barton’s truck was pursued by Fury’s helicopter. Clint drives onto the grass, directly towards the helicopter. Fury opens fire with his pistol. Loki used his sceptre to shoot the helicopter out of the sky. The rotors catch fire and Fury leaped out onto the ground as the helicopter crashed behind him on its side. He fruitlessly attempted to shoot Loki but Clint had already driven him out of range.**

“Did the pilots survive?” asked Sam. “He didn’t even bother to check. I know losing the Tesseract was a big deal… but…” It didn’t sit well with him Fury hadn’t checked on the pilots before making one last desperate attempt to stop Loki’s and Barton’s escape.

Natasha looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think they did…”

Sam bowed his head.

**Coulson called him over the walkie talkie.**

**“The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?” confirmed Fury.**

**Hill clambers out of the wreckage of her jeep. “A lot of men still under, don’t know how many survivors.”**

“Quite a few did survive. The numbers surprised us,” observed Natasha.

“How many did?” asked Steve.

“At least over fifty survivors. They were lucky to survive, and some had serious injuries,” admitted Natasha. “They all had treatment and were either retired from SHIELD or returned to active service within three months.”

“Good to know,” said Steve.

**Fury surveys the wreckage, talking to Hill and Coulson over the walkie-talkie. “Sound the general call. I want every living soul now working rescue looking for that briefcase.”**

**Hill acknowledged.**

**Fury continued speaking to Coulson. “Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven. As of right now, we are at war.”**

**“What do we do?” asked Coulson.**

**Fury lowered the walkie-talkie, his expression intense as his mind considered the only alternative.**

**Loud music blared in a heroic theme as the title of the movie appeared on screen: THE AVENGERS.**

“Sounds quite dramatic,” grinned Tony, liking the upbeat theme used for the titles.

Everyone seemed to agree with his assessment.

Its theme sort of gave him a bit of hope, though he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

Leaning back, he tried not to think of the inevitable end of the movie where he would have to see himself go through the wormhole once again. He was not looking forward to it.

At all.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> You may have noticed I have removed the 'Not Wanda Friendly' tag from this third entry in the series. I do not think I can class this story as Not Wanda Friendly now considering the progress she has made in the first two stories. The Not Steve Friendly tag remains for now. 
> 
> There isn't much for me to comment on at the moment in regards to the chapter. This story may be slightly different as we are able to focus on the actions of the other Avengers too, so the others will be picked up on mistakes they have done, as opposed to it always being Tony, like in the previous two stories. 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted next Sunday 17th January!
> 
> Until then, 
> 
> the-writer1988


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> Thank you for all the comments so far, and I'm glad so many of you have returned to see this series continue! 
> 
> Thank you for the good wishes for my brother. Good news, he was discharged from hospital last Monday evening! Which is a relief. And another bit of news is that as I'm classed as an essential worker in healthcare, but still shielding at home, I was able to have my first vaccine last Thursday! Had a sore arm after it for a few days though. 
> 
> In news for this story... I've calculated there should be 11 chapters so have updated the chapter count to reflect this. Chapter 3 is written and I'm now working on chapter 4. I hope to have a few more chapters written this week. :)
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this new chapter!

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**Two**

**A train rumbled next to a warehouse where there were railroad tracks still under construction. Inside the warehouse, on the top floor of the building a Russian General interrogated a prisoner tied to a chair. The Russian General was accompanied by a few thugs; one of them was in the middle of hitting the prisoner, who was Natasha Romanoff. She was wearing a skimpy black outfit with a black tank top.**

“Were you at a party?” inquired Tony.

“I was. Unfortunately, things did not go my way and my cover was blown,” revealed Natasha. “I made the best of a bad situation. I could easily have escaped if I’d wanted to. They did end up underestimating me.”

**The Russians have a conversation in their native language, one Natasha could easily follow. She commented she knew how the General had hoped the evening to go. The General wanted to know why she had been sent there.**

“You were sent there to… sleep with him?” Bruce crinkled his face.

“And get information. Sleeping with a target is sometimes necessary,” she explained, “but it isn’t official SHIELD policy to take that route. My training as a child prepared me for that role. Usually, I gained the information I required without needing to follow through on sleeping with someone.”

“Nat bought a lot of skills to SHIELD which were generally frowned upon,” interjected Clint, “but it allowed them to explore other alternatives to missions.”

Steve didn’t look happy, however. “You joined SHIELD because you wanted to change. Be someone different. Yet they used skills you may not have wanted to ever use again…”

Natasha shrugged. “I signed up to it, Steve. I always tried to work within my limits but sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do to get the job done. I learned that, but I always tried to find the best solution possible.”

Steve nodded slightly, still looking uneasy but seemed to accept her explanation.

**One of the thugs tilted her chair back over the edge of a long drop to the ground level. Natasha hid her fear. She told them that she thought General Solohob was in charge of the export business.**

**The General mocked her, saying that her information betrayed her as it was out of date. He noted that she was known as the famous Black Widow but she was nothing more than just a pretty face.**

**Natasha asked him if he really thought her to be pretty.**

“I’m not sure if that is a serious question or not,” noted Sam, glancing at the Black Widow.

Natasha smirked. “Part of the role is to play the part they think you are. They wanted to believe I was just a pretty face, I’ll let them… They learned soon enough not to judge on appearances.”

**The General walked over to a table filled with tools of torture and interrogation, whilst one of the thugs forced Natasha’s jaw open. The General implied that any information she took back with her she may have to write it down rather than speak it.**

Thor clenched his fists together. “How dare they attempt such barbaric practices on my friends!”

Natasha attempted to soothe Thor’s anger. “They wouldn’t have succeeded. I had a way out. You should know me by now, Thor.”

“It does not matter,” declared the God of Thunder. “No one threatens my friends or they shall feel the wrath of Thor!”

This wasn’t the first time in the viewings Thor had decreed this either.

**As the General picked up a small device, one of the thug’s phones rang, and he answered. The thug turned to the General and said it was for their prisoner. The General took the phone and started to respond when Coulson’s voice could be heard over the phone, commanding and giving no alternative to the General.**

**“You're at 114 Silensky Plaza, 3rd floor. We have an F22 exactly 8 miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby.”**

“Not leaving any room for negotiation,” grinned Clint. “Coulson was always like that. Determined and focused on the task in front of him. He always knew what to say.”

“But if he blows up the block, he’ll kill Nat too,” pointed out Sam.

“It’s a risk one has to take when trying to bring a swift resolution to a mission by trying to pull the agent out early,” explained Natasha. “It wasn’t used very often. Even if they had refused to give me the phone, I already knew what I was going to do. Coulson knew I could get myself out – the threat was to unnerve them.”

**The General placed the cell phone against Natasha’s ear.**

She grinned at them. “See, it unnerved them they didn’t argue with Coulson’s demand to talk to me.”

**“We need you to come in,” said Coulson.**

**“** **Are you kidding? I'm working!” scoffed Natasha.**

Tony laughed. “Being tied to a chair is working?”

“Semantics,” shrugged Natasha. “He was giving me everything I needed.”

**“** **This takes precedence.” Coulson was not letting up.**

**“** **I'm in the middle of an interrogation and this moron is giving me everything.”**

**The General looked confused. “I don’t give… everything.”**

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Yes, you did.”

“What did you get from him?” queried Sam.

“A lot. Mainly about their plans for the future, locations of secret weapons…. Among other things, they were the main aspect of my mission. I had to get everything I could and then make my escape. SHIELD would then compile the intelligence I had uncovered, determining the best use out of it.” She tilted her head to the side. “A pretty face works wonders.”

**Natasha’s sceptical expression said a lot. “Look, you can’t pull me out of this right now.”**

**Coulson’s voice became solemn as if he knew what he said next would change her mind. “Natasha. Barton's been compromised.”**

“The magic words,” sighed Clint. “You owed me… You would have dropped anything if it meant saving me. Harsh of Coulson to say that.”

“It was the only name which would force me to act and end my assignment,” replied Natasha quietly. “No other name would have.”

“You two… really have a history…” noted Steve, watching them both carefully.

“We do,” nodded Natasha. “It’s all in our files, Steve. You have read them.”

Steve inclined his head. “Sometimes the little details are missed, no matter how many times you read them.”

**There was a short silence as the news sunk in. “Let me put you on hold.” She nodded to the General, and as he reached for the phone, she kicked him with her leg and headbutted him. Still tied to the chair, Natasha stood and kickboxed the tall thug in the face. She rolled, trips the other thug, and as he tried to grab her, stomps on his foot with the chair, then knocked him out with a backward headbutt.**

“They really should have tied your legs…” commented Tony.

Natasha grinned. “As I said, they underestimated me.”

“What if they had tied your legs… how would you have gotten out?” queried Wanda.

“We have specific code-words which we can use if we are unable to escape,” revealed Natasha. “If I’d said a particular code-word to Coulson, he would have done one of two things. The first would have been to dispatch a team to extract me - they were already waiting outside – and the second would have been to blow up the block. Either way, I would have escaped, but it is much more poignant for the Black Widow to get herself out of the trouble she’s got herself into in the first place.”

**On the other end of the phone, Coulson waited calmly, hearing the commotion on the other end.**

There were chuckles around the room at Coulson’s calm expression as he waited for Natasha to pick up the call again.

**Natasha flipped, breaking the chair she was tied to and freeing herself from the bonds, flipping herself upright. The tall thug tried to grab her, but she kicked him, choking him until he was out-cold. Then, grabbing a chain, she wrapped it around the General’s legs and pushes him down through the hole that she had been threatened with herself, leaving him hanging there, in pain, as she grabbed her shoes and the phone and walked away.**

“Nice work,” praised Sam. “You didn’t hold back.”

“Had to get the job done. As soon as I knew about Clint, I knew I had to escape. I just did what I had to do,” explained Natasha. 

**“Where's Barton now?”**

**“** **We don't know”.**

**“** **But he's alive.”**

“That was all I cared about. Was Clint alive?” Natasha paused, her mind running back through their shared history. She wouldn’t be where she was now without him.

**“** **We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy.”**

**“** **Coulson, you know that Stark only trusts me about as far as he can throw me.”**

Tony glanced at her. “You think I’m the big guy?”

“Well…” Natasha started, “you did… do have a big personality…”

Tony couldn’t disagree with that assessment of his character.

“In reality, you were hoping you had misheard?” asked Bruce. He didn’t look hurt. “I can understand you being scared of me.”

“All I knew about you, Bruce, was what had happened before. I think they sent me because…”

“-it was unlikely Hulk would attack you,” finished Bruce.

“You didn’t though,” she pointed out.

“I could have,” added Bruce. “I think they knew how I would react to soldiers turning up at my door. Better to send you than anyone else. It may not have gone down well.”

**“** **No, I've got Stark. You get the big guy.”**

**Natasha paused, wondering if it was better to go back to the assignment she was on or to carry on. She spoke in Russian which translated as ‘my god’. “Bozhe moi.”**

“I had to prepare myself mentally to be able to get into the mind frame to ask you to come in,” explained Natasha. “It wasn’t easy.” She had been scared, and Bruce had seen it.

**India. Night-time. A little girl runs through the slums of a city in India. She looks visibly upset as she runs through the open door or someone’s home. The girl speaks in Hindi as an older woman tells her to leave as there is a sickness in the house. She tells the woman that she has to see the doctor about her father.**

**Bruce Banner slowly approaches her, telling her to calm down and asking her what was wrong.**

“See,” pointed out Sam, “I wouldn’t believe you were capable of getting so angry. You’re so calm here.”

“If you didn’t know about the Hulk, you would be surprised at how angry I can get,” noted Bruce.

**She mumbled something about her father and Bruce pointed to his patients and queried if he was like them. The girl held out money, crumpled, and looked desperate, and spoke one word in English: “Please.”**

“I never took the money,” confirmed Bruce. “Didn’t seem right to take payment for saving people’s lives. They needed the money more than I did.”

“But where did you stay?” asked Bucky.

“People let me stay with them in exchange for saving their loved one’s lives. For me, it was a fair trade. The money I did have, I preferred to spend on medical supplies,” pointed out Bruce. “It helped me stay under the radar, away from prying eyes.” Bruce glanced at Natasha. “Though it turned out SHIELD had never lost track of me.”

“They never do,” commented Tony. “Once you’re on their books, you are always watched. Even when you think you’ve finally escaped them, you haven’t really.”

Natasha and Clint exchanged a glance, further confirming Tony’s view he knew SHIELD had never stopped watching him.

**Bruce and the little girl ran quickly to the edge of town when she runs into her house. She was too quick and climbed out of the window on the other side. Bruce stopped and muttered quietly about he should have been paid upfront.**

“Thought you didn’t get paid,” grinned Sam, teasing Bruce for his earlier assertions.

**A soft voice answered him. “You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle.” Natasha Romanoff stood dressed in a crop top and skirt, with a thin scarf wrapped around her shoulders.**

“Helping people shouldn’t be stressful,” noted Bucky quietly. “It should help relieve stress because you are able to do something to help them.”

“You’d be surprised by how stressful it can be,” added Sam. “Helping others can make you feel better but equally it can also add a lot of stress to one’s life.”

Bruce looked like he agreed with that assessment.

**Bruce grimaced. “Avoiding stress isn't the secret.”**

**Natasha asked what the secret was, suggesting Yoga.**

**Bruce looked nervous. “You brought me to the edge of the city, smart. I uh... assume the whole place is surrounded?”**

**Natasha reassured him it was just her and him.**

“Yeah, she’s not on her own,” chuckled Clint. “SHIELD wouldn’t put one of their best spies in that situation without back-up.”

Bruce groaned. “And, I was stupid enough to believe her… but there was always lingering doubt. I wanted to believe otherwise.”

Natasha bowed her head. “Sorry… I had to… I thought if the Hulk knew there were weapons trained on him, he may have…”

“Emerged?” Bruce raised an eyebrow.

She nodded.

“Not really. I was in control,” explained Bruce. “I wouldn’t have felt threatened. It’s… hard to explain.”

**Bruce wondered if her actress buddy was a spy too and if they started that young.**

**Natasha revealed that she had.**

“You never had a childhood, did you?” muttered Steve quietly.

“No, pupils of the Black Widow programme had to grow up fast.” It wasn’t something she wished to elaborate further on. “It’s in the past. It made me who I am today.”

**Bruce asked who she was.**

**“Natasha Romanoff.”**

**“Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Because that's not gonna work out for everyone.”**

“Can the Hulk be killed?” asked Sam.

“The Hulk is resistant to a lot of things,” revealed Bruce. “People have tried to destroy me and the Hulk… It’s not worked yet…”

Tony didn’t want to say anything but his gut feeling was that the Hulk was pretty invincible, and, to an extent, Bruce was as well, as the Hulk’s instincts kicked in to survive whenever Bruce’s life was in danger. The Hulk may not like Bruce but it did what it needed to, to survive.

**Natasha walked forward.** **“No. No. Of course not. I'm here on behalf of SHIELD.”**

**Bruce wanted to know how SHIELD had found him.**

**“** **We never lost you, doctor. We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent.”**

“What other interested parties?” asked Steve.

“Governments, other spy agencies… Probably even fractions of HYDRA which we didn’t know we're part of them then,” explained Natasha.

Steve’s expression hardened. “They’re not still after Bruce now, are they?”

Natasha exchanged a glance with Bruce. “Plenty of people are still interested but they won’t act. They know what will happen if they even attempted to.”

Bruce frowned. “I’m not sure if that is reassuring or not.”

“It’s supposed to be,” admitted Natasha, “but I can see why it might not be.”

**Bruce asked why they had done this.**

**“** **Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now I need you to come in.”**

“Did he really trust me?” queried Bruce. “Or was that said as reassurance?”

“I honestly thought Fury trusted you. But he is hard to read,” she said. “Not even I know all his secrets. Most of them, we never will know.” 

**Bruce wondered what would happen if he said no. Natasha smiled slightly, telling him that she would persuade him.**

**Bruce cleared his throat. “And what if the... other guy says no?”**

**Natasha attempted to reassure him.** **“You've been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you wanna break that streak.”**

“I didn’t want to,” sighed Bruce, “but the events on the Helicarrier ensured that I did.”

Thor looked a little guilty.

“You don’t need to say anything,” added Bruce, noticing Thor’s expression. “At some point, someone was going to force the Hulk out in the open. In doing so, it helped me accept him more…” He shuddered then. “Though spending two years as the Hulk…”

“Two years?” Tony asked, shocked. “You’ve been the Hulk for two years?”

“Yeah, Thor got me back. And then I was him again… and now I’m me again… Our mysterious voice already said I would return as the Hulk but for the viewings, I needed to be me.” Bruce sagged his shoulders. “It’s been an odd few days…”

**“** **I don't always get what I want,” said Bruce, gently pushing a cradle.**

**Natasha pulled out her phone, telling Brice that they were facing a potential global catastrophe. Bruce chuckled as he tried to avoid those.** **Natasha brought up a photo of the Tesseract on the phone and pushed it across the table she now sat at. She explained that it had the potential energy to wipe out the planet. Bruce queried what Fury wanted him to do with it. He joked if he was meant to swallow it.**

“Would it have worked?” asked Steve. “If you had swallowed it, I mean?”

“You… you think I’m serious?” Bruce was surprised by Steve’s question.

“No,” defended Steve, “it’s just would it be a viable idea?”

Bruce shook his head. “No. The Hulk couldn’t swallow the Tesseract whole anyway. Too big to swallow. And, I don’t think it would be good for my insides.”

**Natasha tried to explain. “** **Well, he wants you to find it. It's been taken. It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be.”**

“Though I’d like to point out, I am a quick learner,” Tony pointed out. “I could have learned a lot in a short space of time if Bruce hadn’t been receptive to helping.”

“You were our back-up,” admitted Natasha, glancing at Tony. “But we also didn’t know how long it would take for you to become an expert on Gamma Radiation.”

Tony raised an eyebrow, feeling slightly offended. “It wouldn’t take me too long. I became an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics in one night. Science for me is easy to learn and absorb. Gamma Radiation is just a small branch of what I already know. If needed to, I could easily learn.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Besides, I may have already done my research on Gamma Radiation.”

“Had you?” Bruce queried.

Tony nodded. “I did. You still know far more than I do but if I’m quizzed on it, I could easily answer any question.”

“May have to try you out then,” stated Bruce. “Because if Tony could become an expert in Gamma Radiation quickly, then SHIELD has no need for me.”

“Or they had an ulterior motive,” noted Rhodey quietly.

Wanda glanced at him curiously. “How?”

But the answer was simple and Bruce answered: “They wanted the Hulk. Though, I’m guessing it had more to do with using the Hulk for their Avenger project than to keep the Hulk imprisoned. What better way to show the Hulk was a good thing and not something which needs to be hunted and killed by turning him into a hero?” He kept his eyes on Natasha however her expression did not give. 

**Bruce had to clarify that Fury wasn’t after the monster. Natasha shook her head. If Fury did, he hadn’t told her. Bruce wondered if Fury did tell her everything. Natasha urged him to talk to Fury as he needed him in this situation. Bruce stated Fury needed him in a cage.**

**Natasha shook her head, denying Bruce’s fear. “STOP LYING TO ME!” Bruce roared, slamming his fists onto the table.**

Wanda jumped back. “Wasn’t expecting that.” She wasn’t the only one to flinch at Bruce’s yell.

Natasha could sympathise.

**Natasha grabbed a gun hidden under the table, pointing it at Bruce. The scientist stayed still, grinning.**

**“** **I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and the other guy doesn't make a mess? Okay? Natasha...”**

“How can you be so calm?” Sam shook his head. “You’ve just scared her deliberately and she’s got a gun trained on you.”

“Truthfully? I wasn’t expecting Nat to grab a gun. I could feel the Hulk stirring inside me at that moment. I had to convince her quite quickly to lower it otherwise the Hulk would have appeared,” explained Bruce.

Natasha didn’t say it aloud, but she knew in the event of the Hulk’s appearance the situation would have got very messy.

**Still wary, Natasha lowered her gun and spoke into an earpiece. “Stand down. We’re good here.”**

**Outside, dozens of soldiers surround the small house but backed off at her instruction.**

**Bruce doesn’t look surprised.” Just you and me?”**

Natasha winced. “Sorry.”

“That’s the second time you’ve apologised to me,” noted Bruce.

“I feel I have to,” admitted Natasha.

**Inside a SHIELD communications room, filled with monitors of partially silhouetted people, Fury stands in the middle, frowning. He is discussing the situation with the World Security Council. An older man was telling him that Fury’s actions were out of line and they were dealing with forces he couldn’t control.**

Steve’s voice hardened. “That man is HYDRA. They didn’t want the Avengers to form, did they?”

Bucky chimed in. “I think they would have done if it meant they could control the Avengers. All of you were unknown quantities. HYDRA was building up to a point where they were in a position to take over. The last thing they wanted was the Avengers project reactivated.”

“They couldn’t stop Fury though,” smirked Natasha. “If he disagreed with how things were done, he’d do it anyway and deal with the consequences later. Inevitably his ideas worked and he wouldn’t need to answer to anybody.” 

“Lucky him,” muttered Tony, though no one heard him.

**Fury asked the Councilman if he had ever been in a war or in a firefight and if he had whether he had felt an overabundance of control.**

**The Councilman queried whether Asgard was declaring war on their planet. Fury explained it was Loki rather than Asgard itself. A councilwoman responded saying Loki couldn’t be working alone and asked about the other one, his brother.**

Thor grumbled in his throat. “How dare they believe I would harm this planet! I defended it from Loki’s machinations before, I’d do so again!”

“They didn’t know that though, did they?” reasoned Sam. “You may have defended us before, but that didn’t mean you would do so again, however unlikely it would be.”

**Fury stated that their intelligence said Thor was not hostile, and that he was world’s away and they couldn’t depend on him for help, that it was up to them to fix it the situation.**

“Though we were working to locate Loki at that moment,” said Thor. “Heimdall had sensed him. It just took us a while for a gate to open for me to be able to come through. A lot of power had to be used to send me back.” 

**The first councilman spoke up again, stating they should be focusing on phase 2. Fury interrupted. “Phase 2 isn't ready, our enemy is. We need a response team.”**

**The Councilman stated the Avengers Initiative was shut down. Fury stated it was not about the Avengers. The Councilman continued: “We're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're gonna leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks.”**

Tony took issue with that. “Freaks? How are we freaks?”

“Simple,” commented Rhodey, “you’re unbelievably, freakishly smart; Rogers is high on steroids – it’s a joke, Rogers – Bruce has anger issues; Clint has an intimate relationship with his bow and arrows; Natasha is an agent of everything and Thor… he spends way too much time in the gym.”

Tony couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s a good way to look at us…”

Rhodey grinned, glad at least someone appreciated his humour.

**Fury didn’t like the man’s attitude. “I'm not leaving anything to anyone. We need a response team. These people may be isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need.”**

**The Councilwoman sounded sceptical. “You believe?”**

**The first man stated war wasn’t won by sentiment.**

**But Fury was firm in his belief. “No, it's won by soldiers.”**

“Betcha it's gonna cut straight to Rogers,” guessed Tony.

He was right.

**In a gym late at night, in Brooklyn, a man stood beating a punching bag, lost in past memories. His punches getting more furious as the memories whirled through his mind. The man is Steve Rogers, and they saw numerous memories from his time in the war, running through a forest, dodging mortar shells, gunfire, and energy blasts. Steve’s memories continued to stream on screen, showing the last words he had ever said to Peggy Carter as he made the decision to plunge the plane he was in, into the ground, plummeting it towards the ice.**

Steve paled, and Bucky noticed.

“Steve?”

“I’m alright…” Steve swallowed, though his voice was soft. He hadn’t expected to see this in the movies when it had been clear these movies were more about Tony than anybody else.

**Steve is breathing faster and faster as his punches continue, sweat pouring down his body until the final image flashed up on the screen of Steve frozen in ice and someone exclaiming that he was still alive.**

Clint whirled on Steve. “You remember that?”

Steve was hesitant to answer. “… Sort of… I… remember those words… I was in and out of consciousness… I wasn’t fully aware… They’re vague memories.”

**Steve punched the bag so hard across the room, with the metal chain snapping and pummelling it back a dozen feet, sand spilling out from where he had cracked the fabric. Steve breathed out calmly, picked up another punch-bag, and started to resume a normal routine.**

“Did you do that every night?” queried Sam. “Go to the gym and just let out all your stress?”

“It was better than trying to sleep,” admitted Steve.

**Fury walked in asking Steve if he had trouble sleeping.**

**“** **I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill,” responded Steve.**

“Where did you get your sustenance from?” Wanda peered curiously at him. “Every human needs to eat and drink to survive… You went seventy years…”

Steve frowned. “I’m not sure of the reason. Just I think the serum was the reason I survived for so long.”

Natasha shuffled her feet. “From what I recall, your heartbeat was very slow when you were found. You’d been preserved in ice. But your heart was beating, your blood was slowly flowing around your body… You hadn’t lost weight or muscle wastage… Oxygen though… Were you fully encased in the ice?”

Steve didn’t know. “I was knocked out cold upon impact. I never woke up after that. When I did, I was in the SHIELD room I escaped from. The serum cured me of all my ailments.”

“I do have a theory, if I may?” observed Vision, leaning forward.

“Go on,” inferred Steve.

“Ice releases CO2 when it melts. The serum prevents illness and can heal the recipient back to peak physical fitness every time. Being frozen in ice, Captain Rogers would have been repeatedly getting acute hypercapnia and recovering over and over, as well as the subsequent brain damage cured to. Every single second, your body would be failing and then healing, going round in a vicious circle for years before you were found. The serum would have been constantly working to keep him alive. Similarly, the last meal you ate was either being filtered extremely slowly or it was happening repeatedly – a network of processes designed to keep you living, whilst the rest of your body remained in a suspended animation state beneath the ice.”

“So, barring any accidents, Steve could live forever?” asked Sam.

Steve shook his head. “I don’t believe so. I do age… just slighter slower than normal. I may have a slightly extended lifespan though. We don’t know yet. I guess I’ll find out if I live that long.” Steve didn’t believe he would live that long. He’d go down fighting, saving others. It didn’t matter if that was his fate – he was prepared to accept it. There was no other way his life would end. He was a soldier and always would be.

The others accepted his explanation and resumed looking at the screen as the movie played on.

**“** **Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world.” Fury walked forward.**

**Steve stopped punching and walked over to the bench, unravelling the bandages off his hands and putting them in his bag. “I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost.”**

“What do you think we lost?” Sam was interested to know.

Steve bit his lip, knowing that his answer could reach into dangerous territory. “Despite what they say, we still lost our freedom. We do not have the right to choose what we want to do. It’s always about needing permission instead of doing what is right.”

“Ah, so it’s the Accords then,” snarked Tony. He rolled his eyes. “You do realise some of your rightful actions that you claim to be doing has led to more lives being lost, right?”

“I’m not going to get into this argument again, Tony,” responded Steve stiffly. “I said I’d look at the Accords again. It doesn’t mean I’m going to automatically agree with them.”

Tony wanted to snap back further however Rhodey gently laid a hand on his arm and minutely shook his head.

**Fury stated they had made some mistakes along the way, some very recently.**

**Steve glanced at him.** **“You here with a mission, sir?”**

**Fury confirmed that he was.** **Steve asked if they were trying to get him back in the world.**

**“** **Trying to save it.” Fury handed Steve a file on the Tesseract.**

**“** **Hydra's secret weapon,” muttered Steve, sitting down on the bench.**

**“** **Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs.”**

“Which is why sustainable energy is something I am investing in,” mentioned Tony. “It’s the future. The Arc Reactor my father helped design and build was just the first step towards a bigger and brighter future. It took until me to be able to harness the potential of that energy in a miniature Arc Reactor.”

“I wonder what your greatest achievement will be?” wondered Bucky. “From what we’ve seen so far, there is no doubt that you are one of the greatest geniuses of our time. You are single-handedly advancing the human race into a new technological age.”

“There is probably someone better than me out there,” played down Tony. “A lot of my stuff is too technologically advanced for people. I have to wean them onto it slowly. Whilst my home and my lab and the Compound are technologically advanced, a lot of the general public would be overwhelmed with how far I’ve progressed. I’ve got to ease them in gently and hope what I invent will be of great help to them in the future. Judging when to announce a new invention is difficult… Unveiling the Arc Reactor technology has been a big help in allowing me to roll out inventions faster. If I could, it would be more often, but even I know too much in one go can be a step too far, especially in the business world.”

Sam nodded his head, agreeing with Tony. “I think you’re doing the right thing. Slow and steady is the pace. And, if more advanced tech is needed, it wouldn’t take you long to build it, especially if the request came through at the last minute.”

“Exactly,” smiled Tony, pleased to see Sam understood his reasoning. 

**Steve handed the file back to Fury.** **“Who took it from you?”**

**“** **He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know,” explained Fury.**

**Steve stood up and grabbed his gym bag** **. “At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me.”**

**Fury blinked and wagered:** **“Ten bucks says you're wrong.”**

_I’ve been surprised so many times now that I owe Fury a lot of money,_ thought Steve.

**Steve picked up a punching bag as Fury continued: “There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment.”**

**As Steve walked out, Fury asked him: “Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?”**

**Steve didn’t even pause in his answer. “** **You should have left it in the ocean.”**

Thor shook his head. “Better we know where the Tesseract is than not at all.”

Steve tossed Thor a curious glance. “I remember the last time we saw you… You mentioned to Tony and me about the Infinity Stones…”

“The Tesseract is one of them,” confirmed Thor. “It is not a coincidence that they’ve started to reappear now. Something is happening… I don’t know what…”

 _You will all find out,_ said the voice. _That isn’t a spoiler._

Tony frowned. “More like a confirmation of what we need to be looking out for.” It made him wary and worried. “How long have we got?”

 _I cannot tell you that yet,_ said the voice. _When you’ve seen everything you need to, you will know what to do._

Tony didn’t feel reassured by that. He was sure the others didn’t either.

**Out in the Atlantic Ocean, Tony Stark, in his latest Iron Man suit, is cutting a pipeline with a laser cutter coming from his hand. He placed a small Stark Energy Reactor onto it and it lights up. Iron Man rockets out of the water and flies towards Stark Tower, seen in the distance in New York City.**

**Tony spoke via the communicator in his suit to Pepper who waited in Stark Tower for him. He told her everything was good on his end and the rest was up to her. Pepper asked if he had disconnected the transition lines and if they were off the grid. Tony stated that Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy. Pepper assumed it would only happen if their reactor took over and it actually worked.**

“I would like to point out I had all the relevant permissions to mess with the power-grid of Manhattan,” said Tony. “Everything was done legally.”

“That’s an attack on me, isn’t it?” stated Steve.

Tony folded his arms across his chest. “Not at all. I don’t know where you would get that idea from!”

Steve opened his mouth to talk further but Bucky reached forward and shook his head.

“Don’t, Steve. You have messed up. You may not fully see it yourself yet, but I think you will.”

Steve wasn’t sure he would.

**Pepper’s image appeared on the HUD inside Tony’s helmet. Tony instructed her to light the tower up. As he flew toward the Stark Tower building, the power is switched on, and the name STARK lights up in blue close to the top of the building. Pepper asked how did it look.**

**Tony stated it looked like Christmas but with more of him in it.**

“So full of himself…” Clint muttered underneath his breath.

**Pepper stated they needed to go wider on the public awareness campaign, and that Tony needed to do some press. She explained she was in DC the next day where she would be working on the zoning for the next three buildings. Tony told her to enjoy the moment. Pepper told him she would when he got there.**

“Did you ever build the next three buildings?” asked Sam. “If one was good enough to produce clean energy, surely they should be in use all over the world by now?”

“We have a few buildings operating,” confirmed Tony. “Pepper handled a lot of the press. Most of them opened up when we were hunting HYDRA bases so I couldn’t be fully involved in the promotion. But there are more clean energy towers operating across the country now. I just don’t advertise my name across it as I did before.”

Clint smirked. “Looks like your ego is finally deflating.”

“Maybe it is,” Tony shot back.

Clint still seemed bitter but his comments were less hurtful than before.

**Tony flew up the side of the building and arrived at the skyscraper penthouse. He landed on a walkway and started to head inside as a hi-tech gauntlet of gadgets whirled around him removing the Iron Man suit from his body. JARVIS told him Agent Coulson of SHIELD was on the line.**

**“I’m not in. I’m actually out,” stated Tony.**

Rhodey chuckled. “To be fair, at that point he was. He wasn’t lying.”

**JARVIS insisted that Coulson was determined to speak to Tony. Tony told JARVIS to grow a spine as he had a date.**

**Pepper Potts stood by a group of monitors looking up at the data on the reactor device. Pepper said she thought the levels were holding steady. Tony said they were as he was directly involved.**

Clint sighed. “I take back what I said. You’ll always have an ego.”

“Naturally,” quipped Tony.

**He asked her how it felt to be a genius. Pepper laughed, responding that she wouldn’t really know, would she? Tony stated all of this comes from her. Pepper shook her head and pointed to the Arc Reactor in his chest. “No. All this came from that.”**

**Tony held her by the arms. “Give yourself some credit, please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself... twelve percent of the credit.”**

“You want to give her twelve percent of the credit, but Stark Tower is her baby, wouldn’t she be entitled to more percent of the credit?” reasoned Bruce.

“I did all the heavy lifting?” argued Tony.

**Pepper looked at him.** **“Twelve percent?” She started to walk away.**

**“** **An argument can be made for fifteen,” defended Tony.**

**“Twelve percent? For my baby?” Pepper sounded incredulous.**

**Tony continued making the hole bigger.** **“Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you.”**

Sam chuckled. “You said you had a date; you may want to stop opening the hole before she pushes you through it.”

Tony winced. “I know. I should have given her fifty percent of the credit. We’re a team, a partnership. Half and half are the only way forward.” 

**Pepper walked over to a small table where champagne was stacked in ice and knelt down to pour herself some.** **“Oooooh.”**

**Tony followed her.** **“My private elevator...”**

**“** **You mean our elevator?” Pepper pointed out.**

**“** **Was steaming with sweaty workmen. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?”**

Rhodey pulled a face. “Pepper told me what she did as payment for your comment.”

“What did she do?” Wanda asked curiously.

“You really do not want to know,” intoned Rhodey.

**They both picked up a champagne glass.**

**“Not gonna be that subtle,” revealed Pepper.**

**“** **I'll tell you what. Next building's gonna say 'Potts' on the tower,” promised Tony.**

“Surprisingly, it didn’t really say Stark either,” mused Bruce. “It was just the Avengers symbol for each tower wasn’t it?”

Tony nodded. “It was. It seemed a better sign to use.”

**“** **On the lease,” said Pepper.**

**Tony joked for her to call her mother and wondered if Pepper could bunk over** **.**

**There was a dinging sound as the telephone rang. JARVIS said that his protocols were being overwritten.**

**“Mr. Stark, we need to talk,” said Coulson over the phone.**

**Tony picked up his phone. “You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message.”**

Tony caught Steve glaring at him.

“Maybe you should listen to what he says before trying to push him away,” the Captain said, his voice filled with disdain. “It was a serious situation.”

“There was not much of a delay,” Tony pointed out. Once he had learned about the situation, Tony had realised he shouldn’t have tried to delay Coulson.

**Coulson said it was urgent.**

**“Then leave it urgently,” advised Tony, and as he said it, the elevator doors open and Coulson stands there, holding a laptop-folder with a phone to his ear. Tony called it a security breach and pointed to Pepper that it was on her.**

**Pepper invited Coulson in, using his first name.**

“Pepper was sad when I told her Coulson had died,” admitted Tony. “She was very fond of him. They liked to talk… I didn’t know she’d stayed in contact with him after he had helped to save her from Stane. If there was something I could change, it would be Coulson’s death. But there is nothing I can do to change death.”

**Tony’s face crinkled.** **“Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent.”**

**Pepper told Coulson they were celebrating but the Agent said he couldn’t stay.**

**Tony faked smiled. “Which is why he can’t stay.”**

**Coulson handed the file out towards Tony. “We need you to look this over. Soon as possible.”**

**“I don't like being handed things,” said Tony.**

“Why did you have to make it so difficult for him?” Steve looked angry. “Why can’t you just do what you are told for once?”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “This comes from the man who refuses to work with the Accords and follow international law. He expects others to do what we are told to do, but you should be allowed to do whatever the fuck you want because only Captain America can be right!” His last sentence came off bitter, but at that point, he didn’t care.

Rogers was a hypocrite.

Steve fumed but didn’t respond.

**Pepper intervened. “That's alright, 'cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade.” She passed her glass of champagne to Coulson, taking the laptop file from him, and then takes Tony’s glass of champagne from him whilst passing the file-laptop over to Tony. “Thank you.” She sipped from the champagne.**

Clint chuckled, as did Sam and Bucky, breaking the tense atmosphere that had settled between Tony and Steve.

“You just got played!” Sam leaned back, laughing.

“Pepper and Rhodey are pretty much the only ones who could get away with it,” explained Tony. “I trust them to know what is best for me.”

**Tony took a few moments to recompose himself after Pepper’s little trick.** **“Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday.”**

“Always snarky back,” grated Steve. Bucky elbowed him for his comment.

Tony chose to ignore him.

**Coulson stated this wasn’t a consultation.**

**“** **Is this about The Avengers?” asked Pepper. “Which I...I know nothing about.”**

Bucky grinned. “You told her everything, didn’t you?”

Tony nodded. “I did. Never keep anything from Pepper.”

**Tony pulled out the screen and attached it to the laptop Coulson had wanted him to have and started to walk towards his desk.** **“The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify.”**

**“** **I didn't know that either.” Pepper tried to look innocent.**

**Tony glanced back at them. “** **Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others.”**

**“** **That I did know,” affirmed Pepper.**

A slight smile spread across Natasha’s face. “At least she agreed with some aspects of my report…”

“There was some truth to it,” admitted Tony, “but it still hurt. And you don’t need to apologise again either if you were going to.”

**Coulson told them that it wasn’t about personality profiles anymore.**

**Tony indicated with his finger that he wanted to talk to Pepper quietly. Pepper walked over to Tony who is going through the files on the laptop.**

**“** **You know, I thought we were having a moment,” he said quietly.**

**“** **I was having twelve percent of a moment,” she retorted but then her voice lowered.**

Bucky howled with laughter. “Oh, she’s good with the come-backs. Seriously, Stark, never let her go. She’s good for you.”

“I’ll try not to,” replied Tony, exchanging a glance with Rhodey. They both were thinking of the times when Tony nearly had lost Pepper, but she had always come back. One day he might not be so lucky.

**“This seems serious, Phil's pretty shaken.”**

**“** **How did you notice? Why is he 'Phil'?”**

**But Pepper was more focused on the files Tony was looking at. “** **What is all of this?”**

**Tony expands his arms.** **“This is, uh... This.” Different profiles appear in holographic form floating in the air in front of Tony and Pepper.**

“That’s when I knew it was serious when I saw the candidates for the Avenger’s Initiative right in front of me,” revealed Tony. “SHIELD wouldn’t be trying to bring us together – or bringing me in either – if they thought it was a situation they could handle.”

Steve’s face softened slightly at Tony’s admission.

**The screens showed Captain America in action, the Hulk roaring as he attacked the army at Culver University, and of Thor fighting the Destroyer in New Mexico. They both looked in awe.**

**“** **I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight,” advised Pepper.**

**“** **Tomorrow.” Tony insisted.**

**Pepper shook her head gently.** **“You've got homework. You've got a lot of homework.”**

“She knew how serious it was,” said Rhodey. “Pepper wished she could have stayed. But she knew Tony would work better without her there.”

**“** **Well, what if I didn't?” Tony turned to face her.**

**A slight smile tugged on Pepper’s lips. “** **If you didn't?”**

**“** **Yeah,” he nodded.**

**“** **You mean if you finished?” Pepper’s voice lowered a bit. “Well, um...then.” She leaned in close and whispered something in his ear. Tony gasps and Coulson looks away, trying not to show his embarrassment.**

Clint pulled a face. “I really hope we don’t have to see what Pepper inferred there!” He shuddered at the thought.

“I hope you don’t either,” muttered Tony. “It’s _private_.”

**“** **Square deal.” Tony smiled. “Fly safe.”**

**Pepper leaned in and kissed him, long and tenderly on the lips. When she drew back, she smiled at him as she walked away. “Work hard.”**

“She really loves you…” said Wanda wistfully. “I can see it. I hope one day someone will love me the way Pepper loves you.”

“Thanks,” answered Tony. “There is someone out there for you, Wanda. They may even be closer than you think.” He moved his eyes towards Vision.

Wanda’s cheeks turned pink.

**Tony watched as Pepper left with Coulson, discussing the celloist, a woman Tony couldn’t be sure of was dating the Agent. His attention was drawn back to the holograms in front of him, which now showed Loki and the Tesseract.**

**Tony grabbed the holograph form of the Tesseract, looking worried.**

“Seeing the Tesseract, I knew I had a lot of study on my hands that night.” Tony leaned back. “I don’t think any of us expected what would happen next.”

Steve’s lips twitched. “We didn’t. But I’m glad they did. We formed a team. No matter what happened between us, we’re still a family. I still see all of you as part of my family. Nothing will change that.”

Tony wished he could have Steve’s optimism. He doubted the team would ever be the same again.

The trust, simply would not be there.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> I wanted to try to explain how Steve managed to survive in the ice for 70 years. It made me wonder so I spoke to a fellow friend in the medical profession and came up with a way that seemed at least possible in comic/movie terms. 
> 
> Steve is still being hypocritical. He wants things to be normal again between them all again but does show an unwillingness to see how badly he has done things wrong. Civil War will be very interesting to write when it comes to it. Though that is still three stories away but we will get there! 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted Sunday 24th January! 
> 
> Until then,
> 
> the-writer1988


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Afternoon everyone! How has another week gone by and it's time to update again? I swear the week goes by quickly! Chapter 4 is already finished and I’m now working on chapter 5 and chapter 6. I am really trying to get ahead of myself so I do not need to take another break between stories when I finish one. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**Three**

**Over a glistening sea, a Quinjet glided over, ferrying Coulson and Steve Rogers to a SHIELD base. Steve is watching the footage of the Hulk’s attack on the Army at Culver University, as the pilots informed them that they were roughly forty minutes out from the base.**

Bruce took note of what Steve was studying. “Tell me truthfully, Steve, what did you think of the Hulk?”

Steve sighed, already knowing why Bruce would ask this. “He was terrifying. The Hulk had the ability to cause destruction on a massive scale and there was no known way to subdue him without making his destructive capabilities worse.”

“Were you scared of the concept of the Hulk?” Bruce pressed.

“Yes. But what I told you on the Helicarrier was true. I was only concerned with how you could help us. I didn’t think of the Hulk as a threat when I met you. Reading that file didn’t change how I perceived Bruce Banner.”

“Yet one could say Bruce Banner and the Hulk are one and the same,” noted Bruce.

Steve nodded, accepting Bruce’s words. Whether he agreed with them was another matter entirely.

**Steve asked whether Doctor Banner had been trying to replicate the serum that had been used on Steve to enhance him to a Super-Soldier.**

**Coulson revealed a lot of people were as Steve was the world’s first superhero. He explained Banner had thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine’s original formula.**

**Steve commented that it didn’t really go Banner’s way.**

Bruce glanced at his own hands. His experiments hadn’t panned out how they were supposed to go. He’d been lucky to survive them. _Though was turning into the Hulk worth it?_ Bruce wasn’t sure, though being Hulk for two years had caused him to reevaluate the Hulk. Bruce had also willingly turned back into the Hulk, knowing full well he may not return as a human again.

Yet he had. _Though it wasn’t by choice – it was circumstance._

**“** **Not so much. When he’s not that thing though, guy’s like a Stephen Hawking,” praised Coulson. Steve looked confused. “He’s like a smart person. I gotta say, it’s an honor to meet you, officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping.”**

“That’s creepy,” swallowed Tony.

“I don’t think he really meant he watched while I slept,” said Steve slowly. “More than he was there when I was sleeping, probably observing my vitals as I recovered.”

Sam leaned forward. “He could have worded it better though.” 

**Steve looked down, then stood up, closing his laptop, and walked to the side with Coulson following, and continuing to speak at the same time.**

**“I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it’s really, it’s just a... just a huge honor to have you onboard.”**

Tony groaned. “Don’t do what I did, Coulson, and make the hole bigger…”

“He did save himself,” noted Steve, smiling lightly. He missed his conversations with Coulson.

**Steve smiled at Coulson.** **“Well, I hope I’m the man for the job.**

**Coulson was quick off the mark telling him that Steve absolutely was the right person and that they had some modifications to his uniform. Coulson had had a little design input.**

**Steve asked whether the stars and stripes of his uniform were a little old fashioned.**

**Coulson didn’t believe so, especially with everything that was happening, there were things that were about to come to light, and that people might just need a little old fashioned**

“Did you like the suit you had to wear?” asked Clint. “Your suit is the embodiment of America.”

“I was proud of it,” answered Steve. “Proud to represent America. But I knew the world had moved on in those seventy years. Was the suit I had suitable for this day and age?”

“Yes,” answered Clint.

“No,” said Tony and Rhodey together.

“Why not?” Steve looked at them both curiously.

Rhodey sighed. “Better for me to answer this than Tony. Steve, you acknowledge the world has moved on from the values and beliefs of your own days, yet you still strut around in a suit representing America. People do not want America to be in control, nor do they want to feel that only America is right and the rest of the world is wrong. That is what you represent when you fight in that suit. The world sees America and not _you_. Maybe if you wore a neutral suit, one that doesn’t declare you as an American citizen, you may find people will respect you more.” Rhodey shifted in his seat, sighing, wondering whether to push on forward. “When people look at you, they do not see Steve Rogers. They see Steve Rogers Captain America declaring the interests of America. That’s why Tony is more universally loved than you are right now. You turned your back on the people you represent for your own selfish interest… yet Tony decided to work with them and find the best way to move forward by taking into account the feelings and respect of other countries across the world, not just America.”

Steve inclined his head and nodded thoughtfully. He shook his head at Clint to stop the archer from responding. 

**In an underground lab, several soldiers under Loki’s mind control, run around, whilst the scientists prepared equipment for use. Loki sat away, but close enough that he could observe Selvig working with a CMS device. He held the sceptre in his hand and it glowed, making him appear in the throne room of his allies, where Loki was now fully armed in his horned helmet and armour. The Other appeared from the steps.**

“Mental projection,” reasoned Thor. “With the Mind Stone. His body was back on Earth but he could appear across the universe to report to his superiors.”

Tony frowned. “If Wanda got her powers from the Mind Stone, is it possible she could project herself?”

“I’m not sure I would want to use my powers for that,” whispered Wanda, horrified by the idea.

“I’m not implying you should,” said Tony, “it’s a thought.”

“I know,” Wanda smiled weakly. She looked at her hands. She couldn’t use her powers currently but she knew there were avenues she had not yet explored with her powers. “I know I have the potential for more… I’m not sure I would want to use my powers to spy on others. I know it didn’t stop me before but I’ve changed. I’m different now.”

“Understandable,” shrugged Tony. “It may be something to consider but not something to take action with unless we absolutely have to?”

Wanda nodded. “Only if it is necessary. Not because I can.” She was willing to consider it and that was enough.

**The Other said the Chitauri were growing restless. Loki suggested letting them go at themselves as he would soon lead them into glorious battle. The Other scoffed. He didn’t consider Earth a mighty force. Loki claimed it would be a glorious battle, not lengthy, especially if their force was as formidable as they claimed.**

“I don’t think they expected to encounter such resistance from us,” mooted Steve.

“They didn’t,” confirmed Thor. “The forces sent against us have regularly been responsible for subjecting other worlds. We were lucky they came through a portal and were stationed on the other side of the universe and not in orbit above the planet. If they had been in orbit…”

Tony caught Thor’s eyes, understanding what the god was about to say.

“…Earth may not have been so lucky,” finished Thor.

**The Other didn’t like being questioned. “** **You question us? You question him? He who put the sceptre in your hand, who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose when you were cast out, defeated?”**

“Loki was never cast out from Asgard,” Thor sought to rectify the information presented. “He chose to fall. He could have been saved if he had let us.” Watching Loki fall had been horrifying.

**Loki shouted in return. “I was a king! The rightful king of Asgard! Betrayed!”**

Bruce leaned in close to Thor. “Technically, neither of you were the rightful heir, were you?”

“I guess not,” Thor admitted. He noticed the other’s stares at him. “It’s complicated. I have an – or did have – an older sister. I didn’t know she existed until recently. And then she tried to kill me.”

“She’s the one who took your eye from you?” Bucky pointed out. They had so far avoided talking to Thor about his eye injury. None of them had wished to bring it up.

“Unfortunately, yes. She won’t bother us again.”

“Are you sure?” Tony wanted to be certain. He could still prepare for any eventuality if he had enough information at his disposal.

Thor nodded. “Believe me. Hela will not trouble us.”

**The Other believed Loki’s ambition was little, born of a childish need. They looked beyond Earth to greater worlds that the Tesseract would unveil to them.**

Tony didn’t like the sound of that. “Why do I get the feeling they want to subject the universe to their will?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time someone has tried that,” informed Thor. “Asgard has fought off many such threats before…” His expression turned sober. “Now… we can’t. Maybe we’ve played our part now…” He cast his gaze around at the others. “Maybe it is down to us.”

Tony wasn’t sure he liked that specific idea or not.

**“You don’t have the Tesseract yet,” stated Loki.**

**The Other moved swiftly but Loki points his sceptre at the alien. “I don’t threaten, but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words.”**

**The Other snarled that Loki would have his war.** **However, the consequences would be severe if Loki failed. “If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can’t find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain.” The Other placed his hand on Loki’s head and the telepathic link was broken, and he was back in the underground hidey-hole.**

“Thor…?” Tony asked hesitantly. “Did Loki attack us willingly? This makes it look like he was coerced.” He couldn’t believe he was even thinking this but the threat was very clear there.

“I’ve never actually asked him… I always presumed he acted on his own…” Thor looked doubtful; a look of intense concentration crossed his face. “Maybe I’ll ask him…” 

“Even if he was, it doesn’t excuse what he did to me,” snarled Clint. “I won’t forgive him.” He glared at Thor. “That’s a promise.” 

**The Quinjet lands on one of the runways of a massive battleship known as the Helicarrier. Agent Coulson and Steve debark from the Quinjet as Natasha approaches them. Steve politely greeted her. Natasha told Coulson they needed him on the bridge as they were starting the face-trace. Coulson told them he would see them there and walked away, leaving Steve to walk towards the railing of the Helicarrier with Natasha.**

**“It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?” asked Natasha.**

“No, he’d rather tell you about the time he watched you sleeping,” teased Bucky, his eyes sparkling with laughter.

Steve glared at his friend.

**Steve looked puzzled. “Trading cards?”**

**Natasha smiled. “They’re vintage, he’s very proud.”**

“They’re actually worth a lot of money now,” pointed out Sam. “If sold at auction they’d fetch a lot of money.”

“How much?” Wanda queried.

However, it was Vision who answered. “They’re worth several thousand dollars. Depending on the specific cards and their condition which all have to be taken into account, they could fetch up to fifty-thousand dollars.”

Clint whistled. “Wow, that’s a lot for trading cards.”

“I’m sure in time your bow and arrows will fetch just as much,” teased Natasha.

“Hey!” Clint shot back, but he grinned, enjoying the banter.

Tony decided to remain silent. He didn’t need to make any comments. 

**Just to the side of them was Bruce Banner, trying to stay out of the way while people walked in his way. Steve called out to him and they shook hands as Banner approached.**

**“They told me you’d be coming,” intoned Bruce.**

**“** **Word is you can find the cube,” stated Steve.**

**Bruce wanted to know if that was the only word on him, and Steve said it was the only word he cared about. Bruce nodded, and noted that everything around them must be strange for Steve. Steve watched a group of men in training, his memories flashing back to the days in the army. He stated it was familiar to him.**

Steve decided he needed to clarify his position. “What I meant was that I was used to the military life. It was different but vaguely familiar that I didn’t feel freaked out by the advancement of technology or of how the army and military had changed in the years I had been asleep.” Shrugging his shoulders, he added: “I didn’t feel out of my depth.”

“Considering how far advanced the world moved in the time you were asleep, it is surprising how you have adapted,” praised Natasha. “Others who lived through the world advancing still struggle today… You take a lot of it in your stride.”

Steve smiled. “Thanks.”

“Though the more technological words I use still baffles you, doesn’t it?” quipped Tony, deciding to jump in.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one baffled by what you say, Tony,” responded Steve quietly.

Tony had to concede that. “Point.”

**Natasha stepped up to them, advising them that they may want to step inside and that it would get a little hard to breathe.**

**The Helicarrier started to shake and there were calls across the deck for the flight crew to secure the deck. Others strapped down planes and Quinjets in preparation for what was about to happen.**

**Steve stepped forward slightly. “Is this a submarine?”**

“I honestly didn’t think aircraft was what you were referring to,” noted Steve.

“Well, being told to get inside and that it would get hard to breathe does imply both ways,” pointed out Natasha. “On one hand it can apply to a submarine as it would be hard to breathe and we need to stay inside with one, but equally my words can be applied to a Helicarrier too. We would still be able to breathe out on deck but it would be quite difficult to do so. Different meanings for the same set of words.”

It reminded Steve how far the world had advanced in his years asleep.

**Bruce looked alarmed.** **“Really? They wanted me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?”**

“Didn’t really work out well for the Helicarrier either,” muttered Bruce. He could have torn it apart during his rampage. He glanced regrettably at Natasha. He’d frightened her in his rampage, had attacked her… It haunted him what he had nearly done to her. If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t looking forward to seeing th\t event play out on screen.

**They moved closer to the edge of the Helicarrier as four huge fans, mounted on the sides, rose from the water, engines roaring as the propellers increased in speed, slowly raising the Helicarrier up into the sky. Steve watched in awe as Bruce just smiled, stating that this was much worse than a submarine.**

“I’m assuming you believe that because there are wider implications if you wrecked the Helicarrier than a submarine?” guessed Sam, considering the potential effects. “Under the sea you’d only kill the people on board, but in the sky, the whole Helicarrier could crash onto a populated area, or an explosion in mid-air would cause debris to fall and potentially kill hundreds of people.”

“Exactly,” confirmed Bruce. “At least the submarine would limit the number of people killed to just the crew. Not ideal but the better option out of the two.”

“Being the cause of people’s deaths isn’t a better option,” stated Steve.

Tony stopped himself from scoffing. He knew how many people had died during the chase through Bucharest when Rogers had been helping Bucky escape. Not that Steve had really shown any concern for those people.

“I’d like to know how you’d evacuate a submarine,” pointed out Rhodey. “The Hulk wouldn’t cause small amounts of damage. If it’s a small leak, things could be done to get the submarine to the surface. But the Hulk isn’t likely to leave a small leak, more a big one and everyone would be dead.”

Steve hadn’t considered that.

**Natasha led them to the bridge of the ship where there was a flurry of activity as dozens of agents sit in front of their viewscreens, monitoring the engines and looking through security footage searching for their fugitives. Nick Fury stands at the command station. Hill issued instructions to the agents until she was notified they were level. Fury issued the command to vanish.**

**The Helicarrier continued to rise higher into the sky and, suddenly, the entire ship is covered in reflecting mirrors that camouflage it in the sky.**

“Nifty,” grinned Sam.

**Fury turned and walked towards Steve and Bruce. Steve hands Fury ten bucks. Fury recognises the bet they had made only a few hours before.**

Steve put a hand over his face. “If I’d known I was going to lose that bet that quickly, I wouldn’t have bothered. I naïvely thought I’d seen everything that could surprise me. I was wrong.”

**Fury walks over to Banner and extends his hand though Banner, reluctantly, shook it. He thanked Bruce for coming.**

**Bruce sounded wary. “Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?”**

“You really were weary,” noted Clint.

“At that point, I couldn’t really trust anyone,” sighed Bruce.

**Fury tried to reassure him. “Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you’re in the clear.”**

**“** **Where are you with that?” asked Bruce.**

**Fury turns to Coulson to explain, who is overseeing the searches. He folded his arms across his chest. Natasha knelt down and eyed an image of Clint Barton on a computer screen.**

Natasha’s shoulders dropped. “I was very concerned for you.” She looked at Clint. “I owed you. You saved me, I wanted to save you.”

“You do not owe me anything, Nat,” said Clint. “I gave you the choice because I recognised you could be better than you were. I’m glad you took it.”

Natasha wanted to disagree but realised they could argue for ages about it. “We all have our own opinions, Clint. Would be no fun if we agreed all the time.”

Clint could live with that assertion.

**“We’re sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it’s connected to a satellite, it’s eyes and ears for us.”**

**Natasha knew that wouldn’t be enough. “** **That’s still not gonna find them in time.”**

**“** **You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?” suggested Bruce.**

**Fury wanted to know how many there were.**

**“** **Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I’ll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?” Bruce was already thinking over what he needed to do.**

**Fury instructed Natasha to show Bruce to his laboratory, and she led him out of the bridge and towards his lab. “You’re gonna love it, Doc. We’ve got all the toys.”**

“Not really,” said Tony. “My tech is more advanced. SHIELD is up there as one of the more technologically advanced places. It still needs better toys. You’d get things done quicker that way.”

“Willing to help then, Stark?” queried Clint.

“I was helping SHIELD as a consultant. I advised them. It wasn’t up to me if they took my suggestions,” replied Tony. “But they were quick enough to call me into action when they needed me out in the field, despite me only being a consultant and not an official member of the Avengers. Funny, how it took saving the world the acknowledgement that Tony Stark was recommended.”

Clint’s cheeks grew pink, but he bit his lower lip. There was no need to reply when Tony had been speaking the truth.

**Back in the underground lab, Selvig and several scientists work around the CMS device. Clint walks in, holding a tablet. Selvig asks him where he found all these people.**

**“SHIELD has no shortage of enemies, Doctor,” explained Clint. He held up a screen showing information on Iridium. “Is this the stuff you need?”**

**Selvig confirmed it was, and it was found in meteorites and formed anti-protons, and that it was very hard to get hold of. Clint noted it might be more so if SHIELD knew they needed it.**

**Loki approached them and Selvig told him the Tesseract was showing him so much. Instead of knowledge, it was showing him the truth. Loki asked Barton what the Tesseract had shown him.**

**“My next target.”**

Clint shuddered. He had callously taken lives. Lives which had been cut short which didn’t need to have been.

**“** **Tell me what you need,” ordered Loki.**

**Clint grabbed his bow. “** **I’ll need a distraction. And an eyeball.”**

Clint blanched. “I didn’t expect Loki to gouge out the man’s eyeball and kill him. At that point, I didn’t care, as long as I got the print I needed.”

“It’s not your fault,” said Steve quietly. “Loki had control of you. He made you feel not guilty, make you compliant in everything he did.”

“But the pain doesn’t go away when you finally wake up and realise what you’ve done.” Clint lowered his gaze. “Sometimes I can’t even look at myself in the mirror. It still haunts me, sometimes, what I did. I could do nothing to stop it…”

“Clint, you are not at fault,” said Tony gently. “You’re not to blame. People died because of Loki, not you.”

“Surprised you can be nice to me considering what I’ve said to you,” commented Clint.

Tony blinked. He could only state the truth. “One of us has to be the bigger person.”

**Back on the Helicarrier bridge, SHIELD agents were running facial recognition of everyone they could see via security cameras whilst Coulson spoke to Steve. Coulson had asked Steve to sign his vintage set of cards. Steve didn’t mind. Coulson was cut off explaining more about the set when Agent Sitwell spoke up.**

“I should have signed them when I had the chance. I know he died shortly after but it was the one thing he wanted me to do…” Steve would always regret it. Unfortunately, things had really kicked off, thereby not having the opportunity to fulfil his word.

**“We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match. Wait, cross match, seventy-nine percent.” He sounded confident.**

**“** **Location?” asked Coulson.**

**“** **Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He’s not exactly hiding.”**

**Fury studied the match. “** **Captain, you’re up.”**

“I do have one question,” said Steve, and he focused his attention on Tony. “How did you know where he would be?”

“You’re really asking _me_ that?” Tony folded his arms across his chest. “Me? The guy with all the tech?”

“JARVIS had been scanning too,” revealed Vision. “Looking through security footage and for any situations and then analysing them to see if they were worth looking into. An alert came through about a situation in Germany and I informed Mr. Stark. He was already in Europe due to another hit which wasn’t Loki. It didn’t take him long to reach the site.”

“I thought you might have been contacted by SHIELD…” stated Steve quietly.

“I was, when Coulson came to visit. The rest I did on my own.” Tony looked at Vision, and added: “With JARVIS’ help of course.”

Reluctantly, Steve nodded, accepting Tony’s answer. He should have guessed that.

**It was night in Germany, and violins played over the scene as they saw Stuttgart Museum appear. Loki is standing in front of the museum, dressed in a suit with the sceptre disguised as a cane. He walks up the steps and into the entrance of the building where a gala was being held.**

**Back at the Helicarrier, Steve approaches his locker. In a steel cabinet, the Captain America suit sat, along with the famous shield. Steve stared in silence.**

“What were you thinking?” asked Bucky quietly.

“I wondered whether putting on the suit was the right thing to do,” explained Steve. “Was it the path I really wanted to walk? Was I ready to give it up?” He paused, and sighed. “There wasn’t any choice to make. I had to fight. I don’t think I could ever retire. People will always need help. That’s who I am. I wouldn’t be able to turn my back on them.”

“Yet you did not turn your back on the people you profess to protect,” remarked Tony.

Steve shook his head. “I didn’t.”

“Do you know what the public thinks of you right now?” Tony continued, keeping his voice low. “The people who you claim to want to protect and keep safe?”

“Anything reported in the media is manipulated by the Government,” said Steve. “When they say people disagree with me, they are hiding the real truth. It’s fake reporting.”

Tony blinked. He was about to respond when Rhodey butted in.

“Are you really that delusional that you think they’ve reported the public’s opinion of you as wrong?” Rhodey switched his gaze to Bucky. “Has he always been like this?”

Bucky shrugged, not wishing to comment.

“Look, Captain America is a national icon,” pointed out Steve. “I stand for America and its values. I’ll always be a hero to the American people.”

Tony held his head in his hands. “Yeah, you’re never going to see differently about the Accords.”

“That’s not true!” argued Steve.

Tony looked incredulously at him. “Really? Your statements here prove otherwise.”

“Steve,” said Bucky quietly, “I know you believe you are a hero to the American people, but you’re not. Maybe you once were. Not now. I don’t think you will understand until your own actions are highlighted in the movies.”

“Bucky…” Steve was flabbergasted. Frustration welled up. “I don’t mean what you think I mean.”

“It sounds like it does,” stated Tony. “Only you are right, no one else is. Rhodey told me that you trust me but I don’t think you do. If you trusted me, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now. If I felt we were taking the wrong path and I suggested something different that you disagreed with, what path would you take?”

Steve lowered his head, shame rocketing through him. “Probably my own, unless others agreed with you.”

“So, you’ll only back me up if the others do so first.” Tony sighed. He wasn’t surprised. “Good to know that I won’t have you at my back in the future.” 

“Tony…” Steve started but Sam elbowed him.

“Don’t. You’ve made things worse by this conversation alone.” Sam looked angry, his eyes flashing with disappointment. “I think its best if you didn’t speak for a while, Steve.”

Steve nodded, already knowing he had screwed up yet again.

**At a research facility, the Schäfer Sicherheitsdienst, German guards stand at their positions. One scoped from the roof. He heard a sound and looks down and sees his colleague killed by an arrow. He raised his own gun, looking for the attacker, however, he too is shot dead by an arrow.**

Clint winced at the senseless deaths he had caused. Families had lost their husbands, their sons, their brothers, their cousins, their uncles… all because of how weak his mind had been. He had been Loki’s unwitting pawn, to do with as he pleased, readily accepting anything that was said.

**Barton and his crew arrive at the doors of the locked science building, and Clint looks at the retinal scanner on the wall next to the door. He pulls out a SHIELD eye scanner instrument and holds it up to the panel.**

**Inside the gala, Loki observes from the balcony above and descends down the stairs. He flipped the sceptre the other way, knocking the guards on the head. Loki grabbed the scientist he was after and flips him over onto a marble table depicting mythological creatures. The crowd begin to back away in horror as Loki pulled out an optical device, plunging it down into the scientist’s eye; the doctor twisting in pain. Loki just smirks as he watches the crowd run from the scene.**

“The Loki we know now wouldn’t do that!” stated Thor. “He was not himself.”

“We haven’t established that yet,” snarled Clint. The topic of Loki was a sore point for him.

But Tony remained thoughtful. “I said this earlier… but he just doesn’t look right… There is something wrong with him. As much as I hate to feel any sympathy for him… he’s a madman there… but you say he’s changed.”

“He saved our lives,” said Bruce. “He didn’t have to but he did. Without Loki, Thor and I wouldn’t be here. Regardless of what he did in the past… He can be considered an ally, though one to keep an eye on.”

**From Clint’s own optical sensor, the eye print of the doctor appeared, fooling the sensors so the door would open. The panel identified the eye print of Dr. Heinrich Schäfer. With the eye scanner still running, Clint walked into the lab and finds, in a cabinet, a glass thermos with a cylinder of iridium.**

“I should have destroyed it when I had the chance,” snarled Clint, clicking his fingers together.

“You wouldn’t have been able to summon the resistance to attempt such a feat,” stated Thor.

Clint pursed his lips together.

**As the crowd runs away, Loki slowly walks out of the museum and his gold armour and helmet materialise around him. Police cars come screeching round the corner as the crowd flee, however Loki blasted them, flipping them over and over. Loki shouted to the crowd to kneel before him.**

**The crowd ignored him and in each direction the crowd tried to take, another image of Loki appeared, with sceptre in hand, projected from Loki himself. The crowd had been blocked from escaping.**

**“I said KNEEL!” Loki’s voice echoed over the crowd, commanding and quietening them into shock. The crowd knelt, fear reflecting on their faces. Loki embraced them with his arms out wide and he smiled broadly. “Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”**

“We crave freedom,” stated Steve. “We do not want to be ruled or controlled. We want to be able to be free to make our own choices.” He was referring to the Accords.

“Yet you cannot always have what you want,” explained Bucky quietly. “Sometimes we just have to accept choices are taken from us and we have to abide by the laws of others.”

Steve struggled not to sigh. “I know. But it impinges upon our right to be free and to choose.”

Bucky shook his head. “Without compromise, we lose the right to choose. Steve, you are a criminal in the eyes of the world. You are far from free, though you think you are. You’re not.”

Steve struggled to respond, not sure on what to say. “I can still help anyone I want who needs it. There are no rules stopping me.”

“The Accords were never designed to stop you doing things,” said Tony, “They were designed to make sure you were acting legally, and that the country wanted you there. If you want the choice to do what you want and the freedom to do it, surely the same applies to countries? Why should you have the freedom to choose but not the countries themselves? As always, Rogers, you are only looking at yourself and what you _want_ , not what other people want. Yet you claim to fight for them. How can you fight for them if you do not consider what they want?”

“But what the Government decides may not be what the people want,” pointed out Steve.

“This is why the Accords committee monitors situations around the world,” Tony attempted to explain but then stopped, shaking his head. “There is no point in trying to explain this to you for the umpteenth time. You said you were going to give the Accords a chance by reading them properly, but I don’t think you will. You’re too set in your ways to see the bigger picture.”

“I will read them!” defended Steve. “I said I will!”

“Go into it with an open mind then,” stated Tony. “Don’t go in with your mind already made up with your ‘I’m Captain America, I’m always right’ attitude that you have.”

“I think that applies to you more than Steve,” interrupted Clint. “You never listened to orders, always did your own thing.”

Natasha frowned. “Actually, more often than not, Tony followed orders… Yes, he flew off and did his own thing on occasions but in the end, it was the right choice… The Accords have split us apart. The only way to solve this division between us is to consider each side of the argument, but we can’t do that until Steve has read the Accords in full. And that isn’t going to happen until we’ve finished all of these movies, is it?”

“No,” admitted Tony. “Definitely not.”

Steve nodded solemnly. “We keep going over the same argument. I expect we will be doing so when we watch the movie called ‘Civil War’. We do not agree at the moment, but maybe we will. Only time will tell. I’m trying to keep an open mind. It’s all I can do.” Steve hoped Tony could understand. 

**As the words resonated with the kneeling crowd, an elder German man stands up, refusing to bend to Loki’s will any longer. “Not to men like you.”**

**Loki continued to grin.** **“There are no men like me.”**

**The man disagreed.** **“There are always men like you.”**

**Loki raised the sceptre, its tip beginning to glow. “Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example.”**

“I’m so glad you got there in time to save him,” commented Natasha.

“I didn’t really fight Loki well though, did I?” mused Steve. “I was out of practice.”

**As the energy beam shoots out towards the elderly man, it is deflected by the shield of Captain America, as Steve lands in front of the man, knocking the beam back and bringing Loki down.**

**“You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.” Steve strode forward.**

**Loki stood up, laughing.** **“The soldier. A man out of time.”**

Clint flinched. He knew Loki had known about his potential opponents because he had read the SHIELD files. And, Clint had also spoken to Loki about it, willingly giving the information away without a care in the world.

**“** **I’m not the one who’s out of time,” stated Steve. Above him, the Quinjet hovered, a machine gun pointing towards Loki, as Natasha’s voice comes over the speakers.**

**“Loki, drop the weapon and stand down.”**

**Quick as a flash Loki sent a blue blast at the Quinjet. Natasha manoeuvres away just in time. Steve threw his shield at Loki. They both started to fight, Loki using the sceptre as a weapon, and Steve using his shield to combat against Loki’s strikes. Loki managed to throw Steve to the ground, but the shield was soon thrown his way, but Loki swatted it away.**

“Messy,” winced Bucky. “They sent you out on a field mission without knowing if you were ready.”

“Part of the reason why I was hesitant,” said Steve. “I’d done a bit of training in the gym but was it enough?”

**Steve attacked furiously, kicking and punching Loki, attempting to bring him down, but Loki threw him again. Swiftly, Loki crossed to Steve and points the sceptre down at Steve’s helmet.**

**“Kneel,” commanded Loki.**

“Yeah, that’s never gonna happen,” said Bucky. “Steve will never kneel for anyone.”

“I would if they deserved the honour,” pointed out Steve. “But not many people will earn my respect for me to kneel for them.”

**Steve refused to submit. “Not today!” He flipped himself and knocks Loki out with his leg, but Loki grabbed Steve’s leg and flung him twisting away.**

Wanda winced. “He’s fast.”

**Natasha watches from the cockpit of the QuinJet. “This guy’s all over the place.”**

Natasha winced. “Sorry, Steve. You weren’t faring well.”

Steve couldn’t blame her. His fight with Loki wasn’t proceeding as they had planned. He was mortified by how messy it was.

**Suddenly, loud music cut in over the speakers, the song “Shoot to Thrill” echoes out. A slight smile tugged at Natasha’s lips.**

Rhodey grinned. “Now, who could be arriving? I don’t think I’ll ever guess…”

Tony laughed, elbowing his friend.

**Tony Stark’s voice comes over the radio. “Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?”**

“Honestly, at that point, I was pleased you were there,” said Natasha. “I could see how badly Cap was faring. We needed backup.”

**Loki and Steve looked up at the sky as Tony flies in from around a tall building and blasts Loki right back to the ground with a two-pronged repulsor blast.**

**Tony lands and points all his weapons at Loki who leaned against the steps of the museum. “Make your move, Reindeer Games.”**

**Loki raised his hands, surrendering. His armour fades away.**

“He surrendered?” Sam asked surprised.

“He did,” answered Natasha. “He did have other motivations to do so…”

Sam frowned, rubbing his chin with his right hand. “If Loki intended to be captured by SHIELD, why didn’t he let Cap capture him?”

“Because he didn’t want to be taken down too easily,” said Clint shortly. “I remember. It’s what he told us.”

“Makes sense,” said Sam, “makes it look a lot more authentic if he waits for back-up to arrive.”

Tony raised a hand. “I would like to point out I wasn’t back-up.”

“Apologies,” grinned Sam.

**Tony lowers his weapons. “Good move.”**

**Steve approached him. “Mr. Stark.”**

**Tony barely moved his head in response. “Captain.”**

“I bet neither of you was happy to see each other there,” intoned Natasha.

“In a way…” admitted Tony, deciding to be truthful. “Seeing Captain America bought back memories of my father. Memories I wish I could forget. But they are what shaped me.”

Steve looked sad. “I’m sorry we couldn’t trust one another from the start. I wish I hadn’t tarnished you, believing Howard was better as I knew him. I had hopes you might be like him but your file didn’t leave me much hope. I shouldn’t have prejudged you.” He bowed his head. “I should have formed my own opinion rather than be influenced by other factors.”

Natasha winced at Steve’s words. Her report had done a lot of damage.

“The damage is done,” said Tony quietly. “Whether we ever recover from it only time will tell. But I’m not holding out any hope. I suggest you don’t either.”

Steve inclined his head. He knew it would be hard to clear the air between them but he still wanted to try, even though it was looking increasingly likely they wouldn’t be able to meet on the middle ground.

_It’s still worth trying. What could possibly go wrong?_

Steve would later come to regret those thoughts. 

**To be continued…**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> Steve still hopes he can fix things with Tony. Unfortunately, viewing later events in the series may scupper that hope. Plus, despite Steve saying he will give the Accords a chance… He’s still being very stubborn over them. Steve does believe he is important, that he is representing America - I do get that impression myself when I've watched the movies. Ultimately, I feel Steve believes people agree with him. At the point in time this series is taking place, Steve is on the run from the law, doing what he likes. He still feels he is right and he is struggling with the concept that he is wrong, and he is starting to see his friends turn against him. It's going to be a hard road for Steve and he may not have any realisations - especially regarding Civil War - until they are able to view Civil War themselves. We're still a bit away from that movie though as after this one is finished we've got Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron to get through first!
> 
> Tony has also noticed Loki seems to be more coerced into attacking Earth than they ever knew. I wanted him to recognise this and take note of it. I'm also not 100% sure if Thor really knew Loki was being controlled or not or potentially under duress to attacking Earth either so I've gone with the idea that Thor doesn't know, but was aware Loki wasn't acting alone. He just didn't know who.
> 
> The next chapter will be posted next Sunday 31st January 2021!
> 
> Until then,
> 
> the-writer1988


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> So, here we are, another update! Can hardly believe it is the last day of January. One month into the year. 
> 
> I do have a question I'd like to ask all of you. As you may know, I do review reply each time I post an update. Do people still want me to review reply and let them know when a new chapter is posted? I will still respond to some reviewers if there is something I can respond do but a lot of my review replies are 'thanks, the next chapter has been posted!', so do people still want me to reply? 
> 
> I just want to know what the general consensus is :)

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**Chapter Four**

**Natasha piloted the Quinjet through the cloudy night sky. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Fury asked Natasha over the headset if Loki had said anything yet. She confirmed he hadn’t. Fury wanted Loki bought there as quickly as possible as they were low on time.**

**Loki sat further back, in a passenger seat, strapped in, with Tony and Steve keeping an eye on him, whispering amongst themselves. Tony was still in his Iron Man suit but his helmet had been removed.**

**“I don’t like it,” stated Steve.**

**“What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?”**

“Rock of Ages, Tony? Really?” Rhodey shook his head, chuckling quietly. “Your use of nicknames… They’re never-ending.”

Tony grinned. “You like the one I’ve given you though… Platypus…Rhodey…”

“You never wanted to call me ‘James’. As soon as we met and I told you my name, you instantly started calling me Rhodey,” remembered the Colonel, smiling lightly at the memories of their college years.

“Why did you let Tony keep calling you ‘Rhodey’ if your name is James?” asked Steve. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Rhodey shrugged. “My surname is Rhodes. Technically, Tony is calling me by my name. Most people didn’t know me as James anyway. It was either ‘Jim’ or ‘Rhodes’. Honestly, Tony was one of my first real friends. If he wanted to give me a nick-name, I quite happily let him. And it stuck.” He leaned back in his chair. “I much prefer being called Rhodey these days than either James or Rhodes.”

Steve frowned. “So, you’re happy that he gave you a nickname?”

“Yeah. Nothing wrong with it,” answered Rhodey.

Tony watched Steve’s reaction carefully. “Would you prefer I called you by your ‘fake’ title ‘Captain America’ instead of ‘Cap’ or ‘Steve’ or ‘Rogers’?”

Rhodey elbowed Tony in the side. “Bit rude,” he whispered to his friend.

Tony snorted. “I think I’m entitled to be considering how he’s been through this.”

Steve relented. “I get it. It’s fine. Call me what you want.”

**Steve was still suspicious. “I don't remember it being ever that easy. This guy packs a wallop.”**

**Tony turned to look at him.** **“Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?”**

**Steve was confused by Tony’s question.**

**“** **It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle,” said Tony.**

Tony sighed. “I honestly hoped calling you ‘Capsicle’ could break the tension. It was clear you didn’t like me from the start. Guess I was wrong to believe you had a sense of humour.”

“You were trying to be friends with me?” Steve looked surprised at the revelation. “Really?”

“That’s what Tony does. He tries to joke and give you a special name in your first meeting,” said Rhodey.

“I didn’t want my dislike of you as a child to hinder any professional relationship we may have,” said Tony quietly. “It backfired.”

“Being sarcastic is his thing,” explained Rhodey. “You may not have known it back then but you do now. If you’d done your research on Tony, you wouldn’t need me to tell you this now. You would have learned this before you had ever met him.”

“Tony and Rhodey are like us, Steve,” noted Bucky. “We used nicknames on each other as children too. Even as adults we still did. Bucky isn’t my name, is it?”

Steve shook his head. “No.” His memory flashed back in time. “I used to like being called Stevie…”

“You grew out of that,” grinned Bucky. “In your early teens. You wouldn’t let me call you that anymore.” He turned his gaze to Tony and Rhodey. “We’re just like them. Close as can be. Nicknames and all. And, yet, you and Tony cannot get along. Yet you can get along with Tony’s father.”

“What would it take for you to like me, Rogers?” Tony asked, interested in what Steve’s answer would be. “I can’t change who I am.” 

“What I want to say you wouldn’t like so there is no point in saying it,” sighed Steve. “I suspect you already know anyway.”

Tony’s minute nod was enough confirmation from him.

“I really hope it isn’t ‘Tony to be more like his father’ or ‘to follow the rules’ Steve because that would be majorly hypocritical of you,” stated Sam sternly, having following the conversation with interest. “And any respect I have left for you will be gone in an instant.”

Steve couldn’t answer but his silence was enough confirmation for Sam that his guesses had been accurate.

“You really do not learn, do you?” Sam shook his head. “Why did I ever admire you? Why did I ever follow you? When we start the next movie, I’m switching sofas. I’d rather be closer to someone I respect than someone who’s failed big-time.” Sam’s voice was harsh and unwavering. 

“Sam…” Steve attempted.

“No. I’ve given you enough chances. But you still want Tony to follow the rules despite you going against them yourself multiple times! How can you not see that?” Sam spat. “Are you even serious about giving the Accords a go? Because I don’t think you are!”

“Because he’s Captain America and he can do no wrong…” Tony interjected, testing the waters.

“Tony!” hissed Rhodey. “Not helping!”

Sam waved away Rhodey’s protests. “Honestly, Steve deserves what he gets.” He turned away from Steve completely and focused on Tony. “I’m gonna need a good lawyer after we’re finished with these movies.”

“Done,” grinned Tony. 

It was clear Steve wanted to say something further but Bucky emphatically told him no.

_Steve would be better off keeping quiet,_ mused Tony. But he knew he wouldn’t. 

**Steve gave Tony a calculated look. “Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in.”**

**“** **Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you,” admitted Tony.**

“True,” observed Natasha. “He only tells you what he thinks you should know. Too much information can hinder a mission. Though… Fury gave you a briefing folder. It had all of our details in it. How did you never realise he was briefing you on your team?”

Steve very reluctantly leaned forward and answered her question. “I didn’t think of it.”

Natasha shook her head. “That was the point of our files being included. So you would realise.”

Steve kept silent, not wishing to say anything further.

**Suddenly an intense thunder and lightning storm brewed up around them. The jet shook violently. Trying to keep the flying steady, Natasha wondered where the storm had come from.**

**Thunder rumbled overhead and Loki looked up.**

**Steve noticed and queried: “What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?”**

**“I’m not overly fond of what follows,” answered Loki.**

“Is that a hint to your childhood, Thor?” asked Bruce. “Or the fact he didn’t want to meet you at this specific time?”

Thor frowned. “Probably more to the fact he knew I was coming rather than any direct link to our time as children.”

**Outside the jet, a blinding light hit the top of the QuinJet. A man with a hammer has landed on top, his hair flying back in the wind.**

**Tony grabs his helmet and puts it on, activating the ramp of the jet to open, intending to investigate outside.**

“I should thank you for letting my entry be easy, Stark!” said Thor. “I would have hit my way through if you hadn’t given me access!”

“Your…welcome?” Tony said uncertainly, remembering the ensuring events which had followed after Thor had taken Loki from them. 

**Thor appeared on the ramp. Tony raised his repulsor but Thor hit him hard with the hammer and sent him back. Thor grabbed Loki by the throat, ripping him from his seat, swinging his hammer fast before leaping out and flying across the sky, taking Loki with him.**

**Tony commented that now there was that guy, whilst Natasha wondered if it was another Asgardian. Steve asked if they thought the guy was a friendly.**

Bucky snorted. “What made you think he was a friendly? He took your prisoner which could have been a rescue. And he attacked Tony.”

“Well… Loki seemed scared. I thought if something could scare him, they could be a friendly to us,” answered Steve sombrely. 

“It’s a reasonable assumption to make,” stated Bruce. “But to state if Thor is a friendly after he’s taken Loki wouldn’t have been something I would have done. Not until I knew more.”

“I suppose I like to give people a chance,” answered Steve.

“Unless their name is Tony Stark obviously,” pointed out Wanda.

Steve turned in surprise at her.

“It’s true,” she said. “You gave me a chance even though I tried to kill all of you. Yet you prejudged him before you’d even met him. It’s…. wrong. I was guilty of doing the same… but these movies have made me realise how wrong I was. If you can’t see it, Steve, even now after two movies, I’m not sure you will.” 

“I did-” Steve started to defend himself.

“You didn’t though,” said Natasha. “You worked with one another chasing HYDRA but were you ever friends? Proper friends?”

“I thought we were friends,” whispered Steve.

“So did I,” said Tony quietly. “You proved me wrong. If anything, we were colleagues. Nothing more.”

Steve pursed his lips. He was recognising how badly he had messed up. He really had treated Tony differently to everyone else on the team. And the others were seeing it more than he could.

**Tony wasn’t happy about the situation.** **“Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost.” Tony turned towards the ramp, stomping towards it, one thing on his mind.**

**Steve called after him.** **“Stark, we need a plan of attack!”**

**Tony’s answer was hard and final with no room for negotiation.** **“I have a plan. Attack.”**

“What would have been your plan?” asked Thor, glancing at Steve.

Steve hesitated. “Probably not attack you straight away. Maybe talk you into letting us keep Loki? I hadn’t really thought it through. In hindsight, what Tony did was probably the correct thing to do.”

Tony almost made a comment about the compliment Steve had given him but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth his time.

“I likely would not have listened to any attempts to talk me down,” stated Thor. “What stopped me was seeing the devastation I had caused when I slammed my hammer on to Steve’s shield. I shouldn’t have been so hasty to take Loki from your custody either but it worked out, right?”

“It did,” answered Natasha hesitantly. “Despite Tony being quick to action, we did come together as a team. Considering the circumstances, what happened was probably the best path.”

Tony raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Are you complimenting me, Romanoff, for engaging without a plan?”

“I believe I am.”

Tony couldn’t hide his surprise.

**With that statement, Tony jumped out of the jet, engaging his thrusters and chasing after Thor. Steve grabbed a parachute so he could follow. Natasha noticed and advised him to sit this one out. Steve didn’t see how he could.**

**Natasha reached up to flip some switches to help stabilise the flight. “These guys come from legends, they're basically gods.”**

“We are gods,” pointed out Thor. “We’re not just from legends. We are gods.”

“You can still die though. Your lifespans far outlive humans,” explained Bruce, “but you’re not immortal. Gods to people on Earth are immortal beings, forever watching over us. You are gods in our history because they didn’t know any better back then. We do now. I think they’ll still welcome your people though.”

“Your people?” queried Sam.

Thor exchanged a glance with Bruce. “We’ll leave it for later.”

**Steve disagreed as he attached the parachute to his back. “There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that.”**

**He jumped out of the jet, following in Tony’s wake.**

**Somewhere in the mountains, Thor threw Loki to the ground, demanding to know where the Tesseract was.**

Thor shook his head. “I really should have just asked Loki before I took him from the QuinJet. I was mad he was alive and had deceived us.”

**Loki laughed. “I missed you too.”**

**“** **Do I look to be in a gaming mood?!” Thor’s response was thick with anger.**

Tony watched Thor carefully. “Even if you had stayed in the jet, how likely would it have been you would have torn it apart in your anger at Loki?”

That stopped Thor. “Erm. Quite likely?”

“Then its good you took off with him,” said Tony.

**Loki slowly got to his feet. “** **Oh, you should thank me. With the Bifrost gone how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here? Your precious Earth.”**

**Thor dropped his hammer, Mjölnir, and grabbed Loki. “I thought you dead.” Thor’s voice cracked just a bit.**

Clint’s face softened ever so slightly. “You were close as children?”

“Very,” answered Thor. “It pains me when people want him dead. A lot has happened to him, some of which neither of you are aware of. Even I do not know his full history.”

“You can see the difference. If you saw him now, he’s in control. He’s not insane…” explained Bruce. “Honestly, I’m travelling with him, and I’m not scared to be. I should be considering what Loki planned to do with the Hulk, but…”

“Extenuating circumstances,” finished Tony. “We know it is possible that he wasn’t attacking us willingly. He was threatened. We all saw that. I know what Loki did was terrible, and he killed people, and he tried to kill us and destroy our world, but think of someone else who nearly did all of those things and yet we gave her a second chance.” Tony looked at Wanda. “What’s the difference between them?”

Clint lowered his gaze. He could see Tony’s point. Wanda hadn’t directly affected him but Loki had. Yet, he’d given Wanda a chance. Had helped her.

“Loki is coming here,” said Thor quietly. “We were on our way to Earth when Bruce and I were brought here. Whether you like it or not, Barton, Loki will be on Earth and I will be making the case for him to stay.”

“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try not to kill him,” said the archer.

“That is all I can ask for.” Thor was pleased Barton was willing to compromise. Whether that would last or not remained to be seen.

**“** **Did you mourn?” asked Loki.**

**“** **We all did. Our father...”**

**But Loki interrupted him, holding up a finger. “Your father. He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?”**

“It shouldn’t matter if you are adopted or not. If they showed you love and welcomed you into the family, they are your parents regardless of whether you are their biological parents or not,” said Sam.

“Loki was… bitter about having lived a lie,” explained Thor. “He found out in the worst way possible… felt betrayed and tried to take the throne from our father. He nearly succeeded. Despite what Loki did on Asgard and here on Earth, father still loved him. Loki was still his son, no matter his true parentage.”

“But Loki couldn’t accept it,” said Tony.

Thor shook his head. “No. He couldn’t.” He shifted awkwardly in his seat. “I think… Loki has accepted it now. He’s part of our people again. He helped save us. And he didn’t have to.” 

Steve spoke quietly. “Maybe we can give Loki a chance… I’m not sure about the rest of the world though.”

“Your support is more than enough,” said Thor gratefully.

**Thor released Loki who walked away from him. Thor tried to get through to his brother. “We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?”**

**Loki turned around to face his adopted brother. “I remember a shadow. Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I was and should be king!”**

“This may seem unreasonable… but did Loki have a right to rule from his own biological parents?” asked Sam. “He seems to think he should be king.”

“His father was the leader of Jotunheim,” explained Thor. “He was royalty by birth but not of Asgard royalty. Because he was adopted by our father, he still had the right to rule Asgard too.”

Tony frowned. “So, there is some truth to what Loki says then. He should have been King.”

“How did he come to be your brother?” queried Natasha.

“Father found him abandoned when he fought Loki’s father. Instead of leaving him to die, he adopted him and raised him as his own,” revealed Thor. “Loki was just a baby. I do not remember a time without him in my life. He’s always been there for me whenever I needed him the most. I thought he always would be…”

Bruce laid a gentle hand on Thor’s shoulder. “He will be. I think Loki has changed… Even the Hulk doesn’t mind him.” He glanced at the others. “And that says a lot.”

The others couldn’t disagree, especially since they were unaware of the full history between Thor, Bruce, and Loki. All they knew was that they were together now and on their way to Earth.

**Thor couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “** **So, you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights. No, the Earth is under my protection, Loki.”**

“It’s under all of our protection,” said Tony. “Not just yours.”

**“** **And you're doing a marvellous job with that,” laughed Loki. “The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you idly fret. I mean to rule them. And why should I not?”**

**“** **You think yourself above them,” stated Thor.**

**Loki confirmed that he did.**

**Thor’s voice softened as he tried to explain where Loki had gone wrong.** **“Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. The throne would suit you ill.”**

“Though when he did rule Asgard, our people liked it,” conceded Thor. “But he did martyr himself. He ‘died’ a hero.”

**Loki shoved Thor to the side, walking past him and back up the ledge, turning around so he looked down upon his brother. “I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile! I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it...”**

**“Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be-king?” demanded Thor.**

**“** **I am a king!” Loki retorted.**

“Not on Earth, you’re not,” quipped Clint. “Never will be.” His fist clenched together as he spoke.

**Thor pushed Loki back, shaking him by his arms, as if trying to knock sense into him.** **“Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!” He placed a hand tenderly on Loki’s face. “You come home.”**

“Would he have gone home if he wasn’t partially being coerced?” asked Tony.

Thor shook his head. “I do not believe he would have. If he’d been completely willing, he would have been harder to defeat. He gave up too quickly. The Hulk winded him but it wasn’t much.”

Bruce scoffed. “You didn’t see him straight after the Hulk had finished with him.”

“JARVIS recorded that, you know,” grinned Tony. “He showed me. It was hilarious.”

“Oh, please me tell you still have that recording!” begged Clint.

Tony eyed him carefully. “Perhaps I do. Doesn’t mean I’ll authorise you to access it whenever you want.”

Clint looked stunned by Tony’s decision. “Right. I get it.”

Tony folded his arms across his chest. “Maybe you can change my mind? But I doubt it.”

“Can I see it?” Sam raised a hand.

“Sure,” agreed Tony instantly.

“Hey!” Clint wasn’t too happy how readily Tony had agreed for Sam to have access.

“He hasn’t insulted me, has he?” pointed out Tony.

Clint almost looked ashamed.

Bruce sighed. “I think we will see that footage in this movie. You won’t need Tony’s private recording to see me bash Loki in.”

“If they want repeat viewings though…” grinned Tony, waggling a finger at Bruce.

Bruce conceded. “True. I doubt we’ll be able to keep these discs once we’re finished with them.” 

**Loki’s eyes flickered if only for an instant before the malicious grin crossed his face once more.** **“I don't have it.” Thor summoned his hammer. “You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off I know not where.”**

“Liar!” grated Clint. “He knew exactly where it was!”

“Loki has always liked to deceive…” sighed Thor. “Not as much when we were kids but as we got older… I always took it as fun though. Part of me now wonders if he meant any of it…”

“You can ask him when we’re finished here,” suggested Bruce. “We’ll go back and be able to prepare, won’t we?” He glanced up at the ceiling, wondering if the voice would answer.

They didn’t.

“I hope the whole point of doing these viewings is to be able to prepare in advance,” said Steve. “Otherwise, there is no point in carrying on.”

**Thor pointed** **Mjölnir at Loki’s face. “You listen well, brother. I...” He was cut off as Iron Man flew right into Thor, knocking him off the mountain and down into the terrain below.**

**Loki shook his head. “I’m listening.”**

“He had every opportunity to escape,” mused Nat. “Yet he just allowed us to keep him prisoner even when you two were fighting.” She sighed. “But we know why now. We know he wanted to be on the Helicarrier. And we fell for it. We should have taken Loki somewhere else.”

Clint’s expression turned dark. “He would have improvised. He knew how to. He’d planned for everything.” He rubbed his forehead, shivering slightly. “I hated every minute of being under his control.”

Despite what Clint had said to him and about him, Tony couldn’t help feel a bit of sympathy for Clint’s plight.

**Iron Man and Thor crash into a forest. Thor rolls on the ground but stands up. Tony keeps his distance in the suit and opens his helmet.**

**“Do not touch me again!” demanded Thor.**

**“Then don’t take my stuff,” stated Tony.**

Steve shook his head, sighing audibly. “I don’t think Loki was ‘your’ stuff.”

“He was our prisoner, technically he was ‘ours’,” retorted Tony. “Different words, same meaning.”

**Thor said that Tony had no idea what he was dealing with. Tony ignored him and quoted a line from Shakespeare. Thor was not impressed with Tony’s attitude.**

Rhodey elbowed Tony. “You know you could have just had a conversation with him instead of what you were doing there.”

“I know. It could have been done differently but it wasn’t.” Tony raised his hands up. “Thor had rescued Loki.”

“I get that, I really do, but you were both on the ground then. You could have negotiated,” stated Rhodey. “You wrecked part of a forest by fighting each other.”

Tony felt admonished. “I don’t think either of us were in a talking mood.”

“Maybe not, but you could have tried.”

**“** **This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice!”**

“And that should have been a sign that Thor was likely a friend and ally rather than a foe,” added Rhodey.

**“** **He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then, stay out of my way...” Tony clamps the Iron Man helmet down over his face and turns to walk away, muttering underneath his breath. “Tourist.”**

Rhodey groaned. “You had to go and say it, didn’t you?”

Tony cringed. “Sorry,” he whispered.

**In one quick move, Thor threw his hammer and knocks Tony through a tree and onto the forest floor.**

**Inside the suit, Tony muttered to himself, knowing Thor wasn’t a pushover.**

**From the mountainside, Loki sat down and watched in amusement.**

“That should have been a clue to any of you that something was up,” said Clint.

“I would like to highlight that Loki knew I’d be able to find him quite easily if he disappeared and tried to escape. Looking at it that way, escaping me would have been fruitless.”

Clint folded his arms across his chest. “He would have been better served to try to escape rather than stay. Stop you thinking he is up to something else.”

**Thor summoned his hammer, noting Loki was watching them from above.**

**Beginning to swing his hammer, Thor readied himself for the ensuring fight. Tony activated one of his repulsors and blasted Thor off his feet back into a tree. Tony launched into the air and kicked Thor through the tree, splinters of wood falling around them. Thor summoned his hammer, got to his feet and pointed Mjölnir into the sky.**

**Lightning crackled down, and thunder rumbled overhead before Thor pointed the hammer at Tony, pouring bolts of intense electricity into the suit. Tony stumbled back from the onslaught.**

**As the attack stopped, JARVIS informed Tony that power was at 400% capacity.**

Thor gaped. “I did wonder what that attack did to you.”

“You weren’t expecting me to fight back after that, did you?” grinned Tony.

“That lightning strike should have been powerful enough to knock your suit out, not charge it by 400%.”

Bruce leaned forward, his scientific mind whirling as he considered the options open to them. “But we know its possible to enhance Tony’s suit now. Surely this is something we could put into planning for future attacks. If Thor can power-up Tony’s suit, surely he can power up something bigger and far more powerful?” 

Tony nodded. “I was thinking the same. We’ll have to work on designs together when you get here.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Not sure we will have time to design things during these movies.”

“I suspect as soon as we’ve watched the last one, we’ll be going back to the time period we came from. You’ll be the one who will have the time,” said Bruce quietly. “I get the feeling you will be the one who will do the bulk of the work.”

Tony couldn’t shake the feeling he would be either.

**Tony briefly glanced at his displays inside the helmet. “How about that?”**

**With the power increased, Tony fired from his repulsors all at once, pushing Thor to his knees. Then they both flew at one another, with Tony grabbing Thor and flying off with him. The two grappled with one another, but Tony’s grip on Thor was far stronger as he directed his flight towards a mountain, slamming Thor back into it.**

Thor cringed. “That actually hurt a bit.”

“Sorry.” Tony sent him an apologetic look.

**Managing to gain control, Thor pushed Iron Man back, flying back through the forest below, tumbling through trees, causing them to fall and Thor lost his hammer in the process.**

**They began to brawl but Thor was quick to grab Tony’s wrists, crushing the metal. Sensors blared in Tony’s helmet of the damage. He quickly charged as much energy as he could and shot the energy directly in Thor’s face. Thor fell back and Tony took advantage to headbutt the God with his gold-titanium alloy helmet. Thor headbutted Tony back and sends him flying back across the forest.**

Tony rubbed his head. “Ow. Yeah, we really took our fight a little too far.” Watching it back now, Tony knew he had acted too rashly. He should have tried to talk to Thor properly without enticing him into a fight.

“Regretting it now?” whispered Rhodey, a little smug grin on his face.

Tony’s shoulders loosened. “Yeah.”

**Tony landed on his hands and knees, throttled forward at speed to attack Thor again to swing him into another tree. Thor lost all patience, and grabbed Tony by his shoulders and swung him round, smashing him down hard into the earth. Summoning Mjölnir, Thor raised his arm and swung it down to smash the suit to pieces, but Tony acted fast, using his feet and palm boosters to fly out of the way. Thor fell, grunting.**

“Would the Hammer have done much damage to Tony’s suit if he hadn’t moved out of the way?” asked Wanda.

“It’s likely the force of the hit could have disabled the mechanisms of the suit if the Arc Reactor had been hit, therefore rendering Mr. Stark a prisoner inside his own suit,” explained Vision.

Steve shuddered, remembering smashing his shield into Tony’s Arc Reactor in Siberia; remembered the horrified and fearful expression on Tony’s face, and how the instant the Arc Reactor had been smashed, all power to the suit had been lost… Though Tony had still been able to move, the suit itself had become just a protective shell, no longer a weapon to be used against friends. He glanced at Tony and saw the brunette’s face had gone white. Clearly, he was remembering Siberia too.

**Attempting to stand up, Thor was stopped as Tony flew back around and punched the God in the back of head. Thor was ready to pounce back but a shield hurtled out of nowhere, ricocheting off both of Iron Man and Thor, momentarily stopping their fight, before it circled back to its owner.**

“You know, I’ve disagreed with you lately, Steve, but that’s the first thing you’ve done that I agree with you with,” said Rhodey. “You put an end to their ridiculous fight.”

Steve winced. He’d hoped to but Thor had been pretty rowed up.

**“Hey!” Steve called, from where he stood on top of a fallen tree. “That’s enough!” Steve scrutinised Thor before jumping down to their level. “Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here.”**

**“** **I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!” retorted Thor.**

**Steve wanted him to prove it. “** **Then prove it! Put the hammer down.”**

“Oh dear…” Rhodey hung his head.

“You had to say it…” Bucky shook his head, a slight smile on his face.

“I may have not attacked if you hadn’t asked me to put it down…” pointed out Thor.

**Tony knew instantly what Steve had said wasn’t the right thing to say.** **“Um, yeah, no! Bad call! He loves his hammer!”**

“Suppose that’s one thing…” mentioned Bruce quietly to Thor. “You never really needed the Hammer did you? You can use your powers just as much – if not better – without it.”

Thor agreed. “True, but back then it was what I thought I needed. Being asked to put the Hammer down was considered an insult to me.”

Steve paled. “I’ll remember that in future then.”

**Thor backhanded Iron Man with Mjölnir and sent him sprawling across the forest floor. Thor had lost all tolerance and raised his hammer at Steve. “You want me to put the hammer down?”**

**Thor leaped high into the air, raising his hammer above his head.**

**Steve crouched down and held up his shield. Thor’s hammer connected with the shield and a massive implosion of light shot out, reacting to the vibranium shield, creating a shockwave that knocked down trees and vegetation for at least half a mile around them.**

Sam cringed. “Wow. Your shield stopped Thor?”

“It did. I was surprised. I was expecting him to break it,” shrugged Steve.

“Vibranium has a lot of properties we do not fully understand,” said Tony carefully. “Wakanda guards its supply of it carefully. Only a few rare pieces of it have ever made it out into the world. The shield which my father made… It’s unique. No other shield exists like it. Of course, I have tried to acquire Vibranium the legal way with Wakanda but they are not too keen on it. Though I am working on opening up relations further with them. They are starting to open their borders and trade more with the rest of the world. Whether they do or not remains to be seen.”

**Tony got to his feet at the same time as Steve and Thor did. Neither of them let Thor out of their sight.**

**“Are we done here?” asked Steve.**

**Thor looked around, silently agreeing to the truce.**

“It was after that hitting the Shield I may have come to my senses and realised we were all aiming for the same goal. I had decreed myself a protector of the Earth… yet I was damaging it in a petty fight.” Thor shook his head, sighing audibly. “I’ve always been one to act rashly and not consider the consequences of what my actions would be.”

“I think considering who was involved,” said Rhodey, “the forest got off lightly. At least it wasn’t in a major city.”

Tony winced. “Yeah, I’d have been paying for the repairs if it had been…”

Rhodey elbowed Tony. “Too right you would have been. It was partly your mess in the first place for attacking.”

Tony could see what his friend meant. “We’re not all perfect.” 

**The Helicarrier flew through the clouds at night. Loki is escorted by dozens of SHIELD officers through the corridors. He is in handcuffs. They escort him past the lab Bruce is working in, and Loki grins as he walks past. Bruce rubbed his head, as if he had a big headache coming on.**

“I didn’t like the smile he gave me. It was too… menacing,” explained Bruce. “I knew we were working on borrowed time too.”

**Loki is sealed inside a large glass cell in the detention bay, held up by hydraulic rigs. Fury walks up to the control panel of the cell.**

**“In case it's unclear. You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass…” Fury presses a button on the control panel which opens up a hatch underneath Loki's cell.**

**Loki peers as much as he can from the glass. Without seeing, the sounds of gusting wind buffeted the bottom of the cell, making it clear what would happen if Loki tried anything.**

**“Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?” Fury closed the hatch, pointing at Loki. “Ant.” Then he pointed at the button he had just pressed. “Boot.”**

“Would a fall from that height have killed Loki?” queried Sam.

Thor nodded. “Yes. It would certainly have killed me too. Loki trapped me within it himself. We may be sturdy and long-lived, but Asgardians can be killed if the right trap is used.” 

“Something to remember for the future…” muttered Clint quietly, thinking of anything Loki may try if and when he returned to Earth with Thor and Bruce.

**Loki smirks. “It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me.”**

**Fury acknowledged that it was built for something a lot stronger than Loki.**

**“Oh, I've heard.” Loki looked into the camera watching his cell. He is being monitored from the control room by Natasha, Bruce, Thor and Steve. “The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?”**

Bruce growled between his teeth. “He only allowed himself to be caught so he could unleash me. He wanted to neutralise us.”

**Fury scoffed at his words. “How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control.”**

“Loki may have been working for someone who could control them…” noted Thor quietly.

**Fury walked towards the cage. “You talk about peace and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”**

Wanda leaned back, shivering a little. “He can be scary…”

“You haven’t seen Fury when he’s really mad,” observed Natasha. “Believe me, if you ever do, you will want to run and hide from him and never come back.”

**Loki leaned forward. “Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is.”**

**Fury smiled and walked away. “Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something.”**

Tony laughed. “The mental image of Loki in his cell reading a magazine just… amuses me.”

“My brother wouldn’t –” started Thor.

Tony raised a hand. “I know. It was an amusing image. One that is unrealistic but still… amusing.”

Thor’s expression showed his confusion. “I’m not –”

“Thor,” advised Bruce quietly, “don’t worry about it. It’s Tony thinking about something funny. That’s all.” 

“We’re going to have to teach you more about Earth humour, aren’t we?” groaned Tony. 

**He left Loki in his glass cell as the God glanced back at the camera watching him, and smirked.**

Bruce growled low in his throat again. “Looking back on this, we did so many things wrong. We should never have put him anywhere near us. He should have been taken to a secure facility and kept there.”

“Thing is…” mused Tony, “we still would have had the sceptre on board. We would still have studied it. Would Loki not being on board have changed anything? Natasha may have still talked to Loki as Fury may have deployed her there regardless of his location. We may have found out you were his target. And we probably would have still argued.”

“I would have still attacked the Helicarrier,” said Clint, remembering the orders he had been given. “Loki could escape if he really wanted to. Even if he hadn’t been onboard, the Helicarrier was our target, and then retrieve Loki.” 

Bruce sighed. “Nothing would have changed then?”

Tony shook his head. “If we go by Clint’s recollection, it wouldn’t have changed much.”

“So, the only way he wouldn’t have been able to unleash me is if SHIELD hadn’t brought me back into the fold at all,” finalised Bruce, feeling a bit defeated.

Clint nodded his head sadly. “Yeah. Sorry, Bruce.”

“It’s in the past now. We’ve moved past it,” commented the scientist. “All we can do is hope we avoid the same mistakes again for what we will face next. The feeling I get is we fail massively if we are here doing this now to try to change it.”

Everyone seemed to agree with that specific sentiment. They had a chance, and they couldn’t afford to screw it up again.

Even so, it was still a long way to go before they could even begin to trust one another again.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> So, Sam has pretty much denounced Steve. Honestly, that wasn't supposed to happen this quick but I think Sam has been leading up to this point that he's become quite frustrated with Steve. It also felt the right thing for him to say. 
> 
> I quite enjoyed writing about Tony and the nicknames he gives people too. 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted next Sunday 7th February! 
> 
> Until then, 
> 
> the-writer1988


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Afternoon everyone! 
> 
> Welcome to another chapter. It's snowing here in the UK! And, I'm tucked up nice and warm at home. 
> 
> Unfortunately, I have yet to finish writing next week's chapter. My writing has stalled a bit this week due to various factors. I'm also probably starting home-working next week (work has finally got me work to do after all these months of being at home!!!) And they are supposed to be training me next week so my writing time is going to be reduced. This may scupper my plans to get ahead of myself and keep updates constant throughout the year without any breaks. 
> 
> I hope I can keep up a constant posting schedule but it depends on how much I can get done and how far ahead I can get. My problem is that I can easily get distracted. As soon as I've finished posting this chapter and answering reviews, I will get straight back to finishing next week's chapter. 
> 
> Thank you for the comments on review replies. I have decided to keep on doing it though I may not reply as soon as I update but I will try to. 
> 
> Please enjoy!

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**Five**

**They’d been listening to Fury’s conversation with Loki on the bridge before the camera cut off. Bruce made a sarcastic comment that Loki really grew on them the more they learned about him.**

“Really? You were beginning to like him?” Thor was surprised, not understanding the sarcasm.

Bruce chuckled. “No. I was being sarcastic. But… my opinion of him has now changed as you know. He’s not as bad as we all believe him to be. Especially when he isn’t crazy.”

Clint looked doubtful at Bruce’s proclamation. 

**Steve noted Loki was going to drag this out and asked Thor if he knew what Loki’s plan was.**

**Thor turned to face them. “He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”**

“You mentioned the name Thanos earlier… The Other guy was one of his, right?” said Tony quietly, remembering from the start of the movie that Thor had mentioned the name. “Why would he want the Tesseract?”

Thor mulled over Tony’s question, debating whether to answer or not. “Do you recall I mentioned the Infinity Stones to you before I left Earth after Ultron?”

“Yeah… I do.” Tony had a bad feeling about where Thor was going with this.

“What else did I say?” Thor questioned him. He glanced at Steve. “You were there as well, Captain.”

Tony swallowed, stretching his mind back. Thor’s words had haunted him and it had only made him more paranoid that something big was coming. “You said the Mind Stone was the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years… That it wasn’t a coincidence. And that someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us…”

“And you were going to find out who…” added Steve. “You never found out who?”

Thor shook his head. “No. Much as I hate to say this, I fear you will all meet Thanos before long.” His eyes flickered to Vision. “If he wants the Stones, he will come for the Mind Stone. There is a strong possibility Thanos is the one manipulating everything. He is not someone I would want any of you to meet…”

“But you think it's likely he’s the one behind everything?” asked Tony quietly.

Thor nodded. “I do though I cannot confirm. We must prepare for the eventuality that it is him.”

“Already working on it,” confirmed Tony. “I’ve got a lot in the works. I just hope it's enough.” His new suit was his most advanced yet but he was still working on the technology as it wasn’t perfect yet. “If this… Thanos… is coming here, let us hope we’re prepared for him.”

“Whatever happens in the future, we have a chance of changing it,” muted Rhodey. “That’s why we are here. To stop the future before us from coming true.”

“But we can’t work together if we do not trust one another,” said Bucky quietly. “I think we are here to see why division is the reason we may fail. We have to trust each other, no matter how we feel about them if we stand any chance of winning.”

Tony lowered his gaze. “I’m not sure I can do that.”

Steve searched his gaze. “I trust you, Tony.”

Tony snorted, shaking his head. “No, you don’t.” 

“But-” Steve started, attempting to defend himself.

“You haven’t shown me you trust me with anything you’ve said,” continued Tony.

Steve bit his lower lip. He knew what Tony meant. Despite his insistence that he trusted Tony, he was still criticising everything he did. He resolved to try better.

**Steve seemed a bit dubious. “An army? From outer space?”**

Steve groaned inwardly. “Doesn’t seem so mad now after everything we’ve seen.”

**Bruce removed his glasses. “So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for.”**

**Thor recognised the name, seeking clarification. Bruce told him Selvig was an astrophysicist. Thor explained Selvig was a friend of his. Natasha clarified that Loki had him under some kind of spell, referencing Clint as well.**

Clint threw Natasha a smile. “Nice to see that you were concerned about me.”

“You always knew I had been,” stated Natasha. “You saved me. I wanted to save you.”

**Steve wanted to know why Loki had let them take him as he wasn’t leading an army from his cell.**

**“I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him,” stated Bruce, shaking his head.**

Bruce grinned at his description of Loki. “Having spent a bit of time with him now on our side… I’d still stand by that assertion. He is crazy. But crazy in a good way?”

Thor nodded. “Loki is different. He saved us when he didn’t need to.”

Clint narrowed his gaze. “He’s still not a hero. Not to me.”

**Thor leapt to Loki’s defence. “Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother.”**

**Natasha raised her chin and stared at Thor. “He killed eighty people in two days.”**

**“He's adopted,” Thor backtracked.**

Everyone chuckled.

“Would you have defended him if you’d known prior to this he’d killed eighty people in two days?” asked Tony.

Thor frowned. “Probably. He’s still my brother… even if he’s not in blood, he’s still family.”

**Bruce tried to steer the conversation away to discover Loki’s true motive. “I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?”**

**Tony walked into the room with Coulson by his side, answering Bruce’s question. “It's a stabilizing agent.” He briefly told Coulson that he was happy to fly Coulson somewhere so he could keep the love alive, before Tony returned his attention to the others. “Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD.” Tony walked past Thor, and patted his arms. “No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing.”**

Thor cringed. “The whole situation between us could have been avoided if I’d used my head instead of my heart.”

“Sometimes we are controlled by our heart,” said Bucky. “What we believe is the right thing to do, may not necessarily be the correct thing to do.” He briefly glanced at Steve. “There are people I know who go with their heart and they always will, no matter how much they say they will change or try to see another person’s point of view. Because of how they lead their life, they are incapable of using their head.”

Steve felt his cheeks warm. He knew Bucky was referring to him. He could change, couldn’t he? It wasn’t out of the question. But Steve could rapidly see the tables were turning against him. Even Sam wanted to get away from him and it seemed Bucky did too.

_Am I really controlled by my heart?_

It wasn’t something he had ever considered a possibility before.

**Tony continued to discuss the Iridium. “Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants.” Tony stopped at Fury’s control panel and shouted out to the crew to raise the mid-mast and ship the top sails. The crew gave him an odd look to which Tony pointed out that another worker on the bridge was playing Galaga, and thought it wouldn’t be noticed but Tony had seen it. Covering one of his eyes with his hand, he mimicked Fury at the controls. “How does Fury see these?”**

**Hill answered with an unimpressed expression on her face. “He turns.”**

Natasha chuckled. “You know, seeing what you see through your interface in your suit… that would be better than having to turn.”

“I always have good ideas,” grinned Tony. “Even if they are not executed well.”

“My own interface isn’t as busy as Tony’s is,” pointed out Rhodey. “It’s less busy. Tony is able to process data quickly. His mind is built like that. Even if we all used the same interface Tony does, it doesn’t mean we would be able to process the information as well as he could.”

“Each interface would have to be adjusted for us,” agreed Sam. “The amount we process would determine how much information and how advanced any suit we have would be.”

Tony nodded. “The suits are very complicated. It takes a lot to be able to control one and still use the interface at the same time. I think with a bit of training most of you would be able to get used to it.”

“Maybe that’s something we should all have?” considered Wanda, stroking her chin. “A suit, coded to each of us, in case we ever needed it in battle. It gives us all an extra layer of protection. We do not need to use it if we do not feel we need to, but the option should be there.”

Rhodey exchanged a glance with Tony. “I get the feeling this is something you could already be working on.”

Tony shrugged. “It is on my list of things to do.”

Steve wondered if a suit would be made for him, though he wasn’t sure he would be able to cope with the technological aspect.

“If and when there are suits, I will let you all know,” promised Tony, briefly glancing at Steve to confirm that he was including him in this as well. 

**Tony continued to examine the monitors, pressing the occasional button and swiping through the information on screen. “Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube.” Whilst he was talking, Tony placed a small device at the base of one of the screens, unnoticed by the others. JARVIS would begin to hack the servers.**

“Sneaky,” mused Natasha. “We did wonder how you were able to hack into our systems. We never found any technology.”

Tony laughed softly. “That’s because any technology I did use to hack into your systems was not capable of being tracked.” 

“They used to do sweeps though,” frowned Clint. “Surely they would have found your devices eventually?”

Tony shook his head. “No. JARVIS was good at what he did. Once he was uploaded into the mainframe, he could hide. All my little devices did was give him an entry point. The device would melt away. No one would notice it. Simple and easy. Quickest way to get the information I needed.”

Rhodey patted Tony on the shoulder. “You can’t really hide things from Tony. He has ways of getting the information he needs.”

“Its still illegal though,” said Steve quietly.

“And, what you are currently doing is not illegal?” Rhodey queried, crossing his arms over his chest.

Steve bit his lip and declined to comment further. He’d deserved that. He wasn’t very good at not commenting, no matter how many times he tried to not comment.

**Hill scrutinised Tony carefully. “When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?”**

**“Last night,” stated Tony. “The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?”**

“I think those files only went to you and Bruce. The scientific aspects anyway,” explained Natasha. “I wouldn’t have understood it. Nor would Steve. You two had more information than the rest of us did.”

Tony scratched his chin. “I guess that makes sense.”

**Steve wanted to know if Loki needed any particular kind of power source.**

**Bruce explained that the cube needed to be heated to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier. Tony theorised Loki wouldn’t need to do that if Selvig had figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect. Bruce pointed out that if Selvig could do that then Heavy Ion Fusion could be achieved at any reactor on the planet.**

**Tony strode forward to shake hands with Bruce. “Finally, someone who speaks English.”**

Sam chuckled. “Most of us here didn’t understand what you were talking about there. It sounded rubbish to me. Scientific, yes, but rubbish to me as I would have no clue what you meant.”

Tony shrugged. “It was nice I could have a conversation with someone who understood what I was talking about. I didn’t have to simplify my language just so others could understand. I have to do that a lot when I’m around all of you. It’s not fun as I have to constantly remind myself, I’m not around people with the same intelligence as me, and have to slow myself down to be able to converse ‘normally’ with you all. It’s harder for intelligent people to have discussions but our minds are always turning, waiting for the next problem to solve.” 

Bruce nodded, finding Tony was on point. “I’m not as intelligent as Tony is. I’m an expert in my field. Tony has a broad range of knowledge everywhere. But he is right. It’s harder for us to converse normally with others. More for him than me. Tony has always been a loner – we all know that – he’s never formed attachments with others that will last long, not until the last few years. He opened himself up to us. Let us in. Now, I wasn’t here for whatever happened between you all, but it looks like you all took advantage of his trust and then betrayed him.” Bruce frowned. “At least that’s how it feels like to me.”

Sam winced, looking guilty. “I would agree that is an accurate assessment of what happened.” 

“Though some believe Tony betrayed their trust over the Accords because he didn’t side with them,” muttered Bucky.

Steve tried not to wince.

Bruce sighed. “I get the impression the movie covering these events will be hard viewing for everyone.”

“It will be.” Tony was certain about that. Especially if they showed what had really happened to his parents and how Steve had covered it up. He wasn’t looking forward to it.

**“Is that what just happened?” Steve seemed doubtful.**

**A glimmer of mutual respect shined in Tony and Bruce’s eyes.**

**“It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster,” finished Tony.**

**Bruce felt awkward and looked down. “Thanks.”**

Tony flinched. “Honestly, looking back on this, it may not have been the best thing to say to you…”

“Honestly, it made me feel really awkward,” admitted Bruce.

“Sorry.” Tony lowered his gaze. “I’d been reading up on you just a few hours before. I was… kind of… a fan of yours in that instant? More for the science aspect… not the Hulk part of you.”

Bruce tipped his head to the side. “You’re probably the first fan of the Hulk though. You did say you were a fan of him. But I do know you were more vested in my work than the other guy.”

“I was.”

**Fury walked in and broke the uncomfortable silence. “Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him.”**

**“Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon,” suggested Steve.**

**“I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys,” said Fury.**

**“Monkeys? I do not understand.” Confusion settled over Thor’s face.**

“I understand the term now,” confirmed Thor. “But the reason he could control people was because the sceptre housed the Mind Stone.” His eyes flickered to Vision. “Which we now know helped construct Vision. The Mind Stones is one of the most powerful objects in the universe. HYDRA was able to exploit that power with their weapons.”

“They must have done the same with the Tesseract with SHIELD for years too,” said Tony. “They would have had access to it, but probably would not have dared to take it. They had to work on it from the inside without arousing suspicion.”

Steve grimaced. “Which was easy for HYDRA to do since no one knew they had secretly infiltrated SHIELD.”

“They were smart, Steve, they waited their chance and struck when the iron was hot,” explained Natasha. “We stopped them when we knew the extent of their duplicity. We couldn’t have done anything else.”

“I know.” Steve’s shoulders sagged. 

**“I do! I understood that reference.” Steve said, seeming proud he had understood it.**

**Tony rolled his eyes before he turned to face Bruce again. “Shall we play, doctor?”**

**Bruce led the way out. “This way, sir.”**

**As they left the bridge, the SHIELD operative who had been playing Galaga returned to his game.**

Tony smirked. “I knew he’d carry on as soon as I left.”

**In the lab, Bruce scanned the sceptre for gamma radiation whilst Tony logged into the mainframe. Bruce commented that the gamma readings were consistent with Selvig’s reports on the Tesseract, but that it would take weeks to process. Tony noted that if they bypassed the mainframe and directed a reroute to the Homer cluster, they could clock this at around six hundred teraflops.**

**Bruce joked that all he had packed was a toothbrush.**

**Tony smiled and walked over to Bruce, and offered him an invite to Stark Tower, informing Bruce that the top ten floors were all research and development.**

“I still mean that,” said Tony. “Though it is more the Avengers Compound now. But my labs are open to you, Bruce, anytime.”

“When I get back to Earth, I’ll take you up on that offer,” said Bruce. He’d done so before after all, when the Avengers had reformed before Ultron to hunt down the last remnants of HYDRA.

**Bruce thanked him but noted the last time he had been in New York he had broken Harlem.**

**Tony had picked up a small electrical device on his way over to Bruce’s workstation. “Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension. No surprises.” He poked Bruce in the side and an electrical discharge was heard as it zapped Bruce.**

**“Ow!” Bruce complained.**

**Tony peered at Bruce closely. “Nothing?”**

Clint rolled his eyes. “Isn’t that a bit dangerous trying to provoke him like that?”

Tony raised an eyebrow but didn’t respond.

**Steve walked into the lab, witnessing the incident. “Hey! Are you nuts?”**

**Tony briefly addressed Steve. “Jury’s out.” Then turned his attention back to Bruce, as the other scientist continued to work. “You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?”**

Bruce shrugged. “I didn’t mind. I knew what to expect when it came to Tony. I knew he’d try to push my buttons.”

**“Is everything a joke to you?” asked Steve, confronting Tony.**

**“Funny things are.” Tony pointed the electrical device in Steve’s direction.**

**Steve wasn’t impressed. “Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doc.”**

Bucky rolled his eyes. “He wasn’t threatening the safety of everyone on the ship, Steve. Prodding Banner? Not a threat.”

“You know he turns into a great big green rage monster, don’t you?” Clint interrupted.

“I do. But, as Bruce said, if he was that bothered by it, his reaction would have been different. You didn’t need to leap down Tony’s throat.” Bucky pointed at the screen. “This is another example of you not thinking through things before confronting others. Once again, you prejudged Stark and Banner. You assumed Banner couldn’t cope with anything either.”

Steve bit his lower lip, not sure what to say.

**Bruce dismissed Steve’s concerns. “No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things.”**

“See?” Bucky reiterated.

**Tony walked away from Bruce. “You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut.”**

**Steve focused all his attention on Tony. “And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark.”**

Sam frowned. “You really don’t get Tony at all, do you, Steve? This is his personality. This is how Tony works.”

“I didn’t know it at the time,” defended Steve.

“You could have been less hostile about it though,” stated Sam, his eyes narrowing. He wasn’t liking Steve’s confrontational attitude, especially when it came to anything related to Tony Stark. 

**“Do you think I’m not?” defended Tony, putting down the small device and picking up a bag of blueberries instead. “Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables.”**

Vision nodded. “Mr. Stark has a point. There are some answers he needs before he can continue further.”

**Steve considered what Tony was saying. “You think Fury's hiding something?”**

Natasha groaned. “Can’t believe you said that. Fury is always hiding something.”

Steve sighed. “I know that _now_. I didn’t know before.”

“And the eyepatch wasn’t a big clue to you?” smirked Tony.

Steve glared at him.

**Tony told Steve that Fury was a spy and that his secrets had secrets. And that the notion was bugging Bruce as well. Bruce tried to stay out of the conversation claiming that he just wanted to finish his work there, however, Steve encouraged him to speak his mind. Bruce repeated a jab Loki had said to Fury about the cube being ‘a warm light for all of mankind’. Steve confirmed he had heard it.**

**Bruce pointed at Tony. “Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't, it was posted all over the news.” Tony offered him some blueberries.**

**“The Stark Tower? That big ugly-” Steve stopped when he saw Tony look at him, and the slight grin on his face faltered. “…building in New York?”**

“Did you still think it was ugly as the Avenger’s tower?” queried Sam. “’Cos you spent an awful amount of time there.”

“When I first saw it, it looked out of place. That’s all,” sighed Steve. He was beginning to hate having to defend himself. A part of him recognised this was how Tony had always felt. Perhaps it was only fair it was coming back to bite him too.

**Bruce explained that the Tower was run by Stark Reactors, a self-sustaining energy source, and that the building could run itself for about a year. Tony stated it was just the prototype and that he was the only name in clean energy right now.**

**“So, why didn’t SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?” asked Bruce, referring to Tony. “I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”**

Natasha sighed. “Thinking about it, we should have got Tony involved. He had the expertise to advise us. I’m not sure if Fury even considered you.”

“If he did, he never contacted me,” confirmed Tony. “I didn’t exactly like being offered the Consultant position. I would have consulted if I’d been asked.”

“It may not have changed the outcome. If you’d been there when the Tesseract went haywire and Loki had arrived you would have been as much a slave to Loki as Clint was,” pointed out Sam.

Clint shuddered at the mention of being Loki’s slave.

Tony wasn’t so sure but he didn’t comment. He was remembering when Loki had tried to control him and had failed. The Arc Reactor had stopped him. _The Arc Reactor stopped an Infinity Stone…_ It was a realisation that started Tony’s mind whirring. _Might be worth looking into this further…_ No one seemed to notice the curious expression on his face as they resumed the movie.

**Tony walked around the table, pulling out a small device and inspecting the screen. “I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files.”**

**Taken back by that Steve started to protest leaving Tony to clarify what he meant.**

**“JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide.” He held out the bag of blueberries to Steve, offering him one.**

**“Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?” stated Steve.**

Bucky sighed. “You should have just taken the blueberries.”

**“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome,” defended Tony.**

**Steve attempted to get his point across. “I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them.”**

Tony couldn’t resist snorting. “My, my, what a change of tune you have, Captain. Follow orders… but that doesn’t apply to you now, does it? Has it ever applied to you?”

Steve gritted his teeth. “The Accords are different-”

Sam hung his head. “Steve, just shut up. They’re not any different and you know it!”

Surprised by Sam’s reaction, Steve shut his mouth.

**Tony mentioned that following wasn’t really his style.**

**“And you're all about style, aren't you?” smirked Steve.**

**Tony hit back quickly. “Of the people in this room, which one is: A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?”**

“Steve,” answered Wanda. “Did you just go in there to pick a fight?”

Steve sighed. “No. I-”

“Looks like you did to me,” said Wanda. “Because you did distract them from their work.”

**Bruce decided to intervene, sensing the rising tension. “Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?”**

“I could see this situation getting worse so I decided I had to intervene,” explained Bruce. “I didn’t want to. But the tension in that room was high.”

**Steve briefly considered it before shaking off any reservations. “Just find the cube.” He walked out the lab and stops in the corridor, contemplating his next move, before he finally decides to investigate.**

“Hypocrite,” muttered Rhodey.

**Back in the lab, Tony worked at one of the stations. “That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice.”**

“For the record, Rogers, as much as there are unresolved issues between us, I’d rather you were out of the ice,” said Tony.

**Bruce worked at another monitor stating that Steve wasn’t wrong about the Loki and that he did have the jump on them. Tony walked across the lab saying that Loki had an ACME dynamite kit, and that it would blow up in his face and Tony would be there when it does. Bruce said he would be reading all about it as he wouldn’t be there.**

**However, Tony wasn’t convinced stating Bruce would be suiting up like the rest of them. Bruce disagreed, saying he didn’t get a suit of armour and he was exposed, like a nerve, and it was a nightmare for him.**

“We all are though,” observed Natasha. “Even with high-tech armour. We’re still exposed, regardless. We throw ourselves into the line of fire every single day.”

**Tony walked slowly over to Bruce, tapping his chest piece beneath his t-shirt, the light hidden by the colour of his shirt. “You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart. This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege.”**

Tony spoke quietly. “Other than Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy… you were the first person I had spoken to about the shrapnel and what the Reactor was doing to keep me alive. It’s not often I trust someone with that level of information. Especially someone I had just met.”

“Then why did you do it?” asked Bruce curiously.

“Because I felt I could trust you. And I wanted you to know I felt the same way you did,” revealed Tony.

Bruce looked thoughtful. 

**“But you can control it,” said Bruce.**

**“Because I learned how.”**

**Bruce said it was different and continued to try to analyse the data, however, Tony stopped him by sliding the data aside so that the two could see each other through the screen separating them.**

**“Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you,” noted Tony.**

**“So, you’re saying that the Hulk… the other guy… saved my life?” asked Bruce, not convinced. “That’s nice. It’s a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?”**

**“I guess we’ll find out.” Tony walked back over to his workstation.**

**Bruce commented that Tony might not like the answer to why the Hulk saved Bruce’s life, however Tony countered that Bruce might like it himself.**

“I still feel we haven’t found out why I survived,” sighed Bruce, running a hand through his hair.

“There is still time,” smiled Tony. “There are still two movies that will show us the future. Perhaps we will see there?”

Bruce grimaced. “Maybe.”

**In Secure Storage 10-C, Steve opens the heavy door, and finds a room stacked with metal crates. Steve glanced up and saw another level. He leapt up high and moved up onto the next level and continued to move forward.**

**Inside a van travelling along the road at night, Selvig picks up the small cylinder shape of Iridium with metal prongs and lightly places it inside the CMS device. The CMS accepted it, and Selvig smiled at his work.**

**Back in the briefing room onboard the Helicarrier, Coulson had shown Thor a photo of Jane Foster on the monitors. He told the god that as soon as Loki had taken Selvig, they moved Jane Foster. They had placed her at an observatory in Tromso, and that she was asked to consult very suddenly yesterday for a handsome fee and a private plane. The location was very remote and she would be safe.**

“I’m glad SHIELD helped protect Jane when she needed to be,” said Thor. His eyes were sad, remembering their past love. “But we’re not together anymore.”

“What happened?” asked Steve. He hadn’t heard of this.

“It was a mutual dumping,” stated Thor.

Tony folded his arms across his chest. “Do bear in mind I have connections across the world. Though I’ve never worked with Jane Foster, I have worked with some of her colleagues. According to them… she dumped you.”

Thor glared at him. “Mutual.”

Tony held up his hands in surrender. “If you say so!” But he did know it was Jane who had ended things with Thor, especially since he had rarely been on Earth in the last few years whilst he sought out the answers to the Infinity Stones. Their relationship hadn’t been sustainable.

**Thor was grateful for safeguarding Jane. He dreaded what Loki planned for Erik Selvig once his plans are complete. Coulson stated Selvig spoke of Thor a lot as he had changed his life, had in fact changed a lot around SHIELD as well.**

**The two started to walk around the bridge. “They were better as they were. We pretend on Asgard that we’re more advanced, but we come here battling like bilchsteim.”**

**Coulson wondered what they were. Thor explained that there had huge, scaly, big antlers. He didn’t realise Earth didn’t have them. He stated that they are repulsive and they trample everything in their path.**

“I think if we had any of those, we would have known by now,” stated Rhodey.

**Thor looked out of the viewscreen, down onto the world below, lamenting on his history with Earth. “When I first came to Earth, Loki’s rage followed me here and your people paid the price. And now, again.” He was silent for a few moments as he considered how much he had changed. “In my youth, I courted war.”**

**Fury walked in stating war hadn’t started yet, but he wondered if Thor would be able to make Loki tell them where the Tesseract was.**

**Thor wasn’t sure. “I do not know. Loki’s mind is far afield. It’s not just power he craves, it’s vengeance upon me. There’s no pain that would prise his need from him.”**

“Knowing that Loki was manipulated, potentially forced into attacking Earth…” Thor paused. “If we had known, if _I had_ known… I could have put a stop to this invasion before it started.” It was a regret he would carry with him.

**Fury stated that a lot of guys think that until the pain stops. Thor wanted to know what they were asking him to do. Fury asked what Thor was prepared to do.**

**“Loki is a prisoner,” stated Thor.**

**Fury leaned in towards Thor. “Then why do I feel like he’s the only person on this boat that wants to be here?”**

**Thor couldn’t answer.**

“If we’d considered the implications more, we may not have ended up in the situation we were in at the end,” sighed Steve.

Thor shook his head. “I don’t think we could have stopped it. What was supposed to happen did. We could only do our best with the knowledge we had at the time. I will always regret not pushing Loki further. As his brother, I should have done.”

Despite their chequered history with Loki, they could feel a little sympathy for Thor, even Clint.

Thor raised his gaze and glanced around the room at his companions. “But there is still hope for Loki. His actions recently have shown he can be redeemed. This can be true of anyone.” 

Clint wasn’t so sure but refrained from commenting as the movie continued.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think!
> 
> Steve really wants to change how he comes across to others with some of the things he says. That may or may not be possible. Civil War will be the movie where Steve's beliefs are truly tested. I'm really looking forward to writing that one!
> 
> Sam is really getting fed up with Steve's rubbish. 
> 
> Clint still has issues with Loki which isn't surprising. 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted next Sunday 14th February! 
> 
> Until then, 
> 
> the-writer1988


	6. Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Afternoon everyone! Here is the next chapter but first I do have a little announcement so please read this before you proceed further. 
> 
> This last week I haven't felt well. I won't go into details (it is not Covid-19) which has hampered my writing. I've also now started to work from home as they have finally got me all set up to do so, so during the weekday hours I now have to do some proper work! Before I was spending that time to write and enjoy myself but that has now come to an end. 
> 
> Due to a combination of not feeling 100% and working from home, it is unlikely I will be able to update next week. I haven't even written out the transcript for next week's chapter either and in addition to needing to add in character discussions, making next week's chapter (it will be quite long) is going to be very difficult for me to manage. 
> 
> I do not make this decision lightly. There will be a two-week break only and I fully intend to update on Sunday 28th February. This will hopefully relieve a bit of stress for me and will enable me to hopefully get that little bit ahead of myself with my writing again. 
> 
> I apologise for needing to do this but unfortunately, circumstances mean I have to. I hope this two-week break between chapters will allow me to finish the transcripts for the rest of the story and write out another 2/3 chapters as well as in addition to starting on the transcript for Iron Man 3. I hope taking this small break now means I can still keep my word to continue with IM3 chapters straight after this story has finished. 
> 
> I hope you can all understand the decision I have had to make. 
> 
> Please enjoy this chapter :)

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**Six**

**Loki paced back forth inside his glass cell. He paused; a slight smirk crossed his face. He stated that there were not many people who could sneak up on him. He turned to see Natasha standing outside his cell. She replied that he’d figured she would come. Loki slowly walked forward as he replied to her.**

**“After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate.” He smiled widely.**

Clint frowned. “I recall him saying to us we would free him before anyone had a chance to interrogate him… That’s why we acted so quickly.”

“Loki was always good at making plans,” said Thor. “I was the one who used to deviate from the plan. He always planned ahead.”

“I think we threw him off guard by me questioning him,” said Natasha. “We agreed it should be me to go because we knew he wouldn’t let his guard down with Fury, but he may do if he was expecting other things to happen first and they didn’t.”

**“I wanna know what you’ve done to Agent Barton,” stated Natasha, tonelessly.**

**Loki stated that he had expanded Clint’s mind.**

Clint snorted. “More like closed it down so I could be easily controlled and was partial to your whims.” He glared at the screen.

**Natasha wanted to know what would happen to Clint’s mind once Loki had won as she slowly approached his cell and folded her arms across her chest.**

**“Is this love, Agent Romanoff?” asked Loki.**

**“Love is for children. I owe him a debt,” replied Natasha.**

Natasha was being hard on herself. She had lied. She cared for Clint, platonically. He had saved her when no one else would have done. He’d offered her a life-line. But to tell Loki that would have been detrimental to the mission she’d had in questioning him. She glanced at her friend.

“I know you were not being truthful,” muttered Clint. “But he already knew the truth. I’d told him as much. He was playing you just as much as you were playing him.”

**Loki stepped back and sat down at the edge of the cell. “Tell me.”**

**Natasha stepped back and sat down as well, facing Loki, slowly letting her guard down as she spoke about her past. “Before I worked for SHIELD, I, uh… well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset. I didn’t care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD’s radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call.”**

“Why did you give her a chance?” asked Bucky. “Is that what SHIELD does? Always give chances to its targets?”

Clink shook his head. “No.”

“Then why did you?” Bucky cocked his head to the side.

Clint sighed. “We had been observing Natasha for a long time before the order came through to assassinate her. I was tasked with it. Instead of killing her, I offered her a choice. I had seen that there were times when she paused, just slightly, before killing her target, as if she didn’t want to be doing it. I’d made this case to SHIELD before but had been brushed off. When it came to it, when it came to defending a target she was after, I decided to offer her the choice.”

“No one had ever given me a choice before. I was always being told what to do,” continued Natasha. “My life was ruled by the Red Room and their rules. You couldn’t escape from it, no matter how hard someone tried. If you tried to break away, you were killed. I hated doing what I did but I never wanted to die. When Clint gave me the choice, I took it because someone believed in me.” She felt wetness in her eyes. “Clint was the first to see I could be something more than what I was and had been trained to be.” 

Clint bowed his head. “I saw something in Natasha that she couldn’t see herself. I saw a good person if given the chance.”

“I’m glad you gave her a chance,” smiled Steve. “She deserved it.”

Tony wanted to make a comment but Rhodey shook his head. There was no point in reigniting the same old argument again.

**Loki nodded his head, gently replying in a soft voice. “And what will you do if I vow to spare him?”**

Natasha grounded her teeth together. She had managed to keep her cool during this conversation, reacting only slightly when Loki had become vile, but his words of what he would have done to Clint had been awful.

“He wouldn’t spare him,” commented Sam.

Natasha shuddered slightly, remembering Loki’s terrible words about what he would do to Clint. It had genuinely startled and terrified her.

**Natasha remarked that she wouldn’t let him out.**

**Loki laughed, leaning forward. “No, but I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?”**

“I know this was a ploy to get Loki to talk,” started Steve, “but is bargaining for the life of one man really necessary? No life should outweigh any other life.”

Tony burst out laughing. Rhodey frowned. “Ah, Rogers, you prioritised Barnes over the lives of the people you were sworn to protect. You’re being a hypocrite again.”

“But Bucky-” argued Steve. A hand laid on his shoulder.

“Steve, I had always been a threat to them as the Winter Soldier. My life shouldn’t have outweighed others. If you believe that, then you are being hypocritical. If my death meant saving the universe, would you go through with it?”

Steve lowered his gaze. “No. Your life is worth it, regardless. There would always be other ways to save the universe.”

“Even if it meant the deaths of millions of people first?” Bucky inched away from Steve.

“Bucky, you’ve been through a lot. You deserve a chance to live-”

“But not at the expense of other people, Steve!” retorted Bucky. “I’m not more important than anyone else here! What if it was Tony? What if he had to die saving the universe? Would you stop him? Or is his life worth less than mine because it would mean I’d live?”

“You can’t-” Steve struggled to say what he wanted to.

Bucky shook his head. “Wow, Steve. So, I’m the most important thing to you. Other people’s lives only matter if I’m not in the equation, but if I am, my life outweighs everyone else’s.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “I think you’d better stop pretending to be a hero.”

“Bucky-” Steve was gobsmacked.

“Save it,” replied Bucky harshly.

Steve looked miserably down at his feet. Could this possibly get any worse than it already was?

**Natasha commented that regimes fall every day and she tended not to weep over that as she was Russian or had once been. Loki wanted to know what she was after.**

**Natasha stood from her sear. “It’s really not that complicated. I’ve got red in my ledger, I’d like to wipe it out.”**

Natasha knew she would never be able to truly succeed at wiping her ledger clear. She’d spend the rest of her life trying to do so.

**“Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov’s daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital fire? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it’s gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?”**

“I did a lot of awful things as part of the Red Room,” admitted Natasha. “No matter how much I try, I will not be able to ever clear my conscience or gain the forgiveness of those I’ve hurt.”

“The fact that you try is what matters,” said Steve quietly, knowing his opinions were not that popular at the moment. He had briefly wondered if he should comment at all.

Tony spoke quietly from the side. “We’ve all done things we wish we hadn’t. All of us are trying to clear our conscience, to prove we are better than what people believe we are. I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for my history as a weapon’s manufacturer. I’ll probably still be remembered as one. And I still keep making mistakes but I own up to them and try to make myself better. We know we are better people than we were. The people who love us recognise it too and those are the people who matter.”

“Wise words,” noted Sam.

**Natasha begins to look unnerved as Loki approached her, his voice getting angrier and harder, losing the soft edge to his voice that had been there before.**

**“This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic!” he spat.**

Bruce sighed. “Loki really has a way with words, doesn’t he?”

Thor nodded. “He always did.”

**As Loki continues to speak, they saw Tony and Bruce continuing to work at their monitors; Agent Hill checks every viewscreen on the bridge whilst Fury oversees. Steve opens up the steel crates and looks behind him, an angry expression on his face. They could see the crate was filled with HYDRA weapons.**

“I honestly didn’t expect to find what I did,” sighed Steve. He flickered his gaze to Tony and Bruce. “You were right. I never recognised it, but you were right to dig further into SHIELD and Fury’s business.”

Tony wasn’t sure whether to thank Steve or not. It wasn’t often Steve complimented him.

**“You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!”**

**Loki slammed his fist into the window of the cell making Natasha flinch. “I won’t touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear! And when he’ll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I’ll split his skull!”**

Clint’s face paled. “That’s what that bastard told you?” Then his expression turned angry. “How dare that bastard say that? I’ll kill him!”

Thor stood from his seat and whirled on Clint. “No, you won’t!”

“Try and stop me!” shouted Clint, his anger getting the best of him.

Electricity sparked over Thor’s fingers. “You. Will. Not. Touch. Loki. Do you understand?” hissed Thor, his eyes glittering with unspent rage.

Clint swallowed but didn’t reply.

“Clint,” warned Steve.

Seconds passed and Clint’s shoulders dropped.

“Fine. He lives. For now.”

Thor scrutinised Clint closely. “I’ll be watching.” 

**Horrified, Natasha turned away from Loki.**

**“This is my bargain, you mewling quim!” Loki spat, his voice harsh and cruel.**

**Distraught and disgusted, Natasha could only answer him with three words. “You’re a monster.”**

“Honestly, Loki did scare me,” said Natasha. “When he told me his play, I had to force myself not to be scared. He did shake me. A lot.” 

**Loki chuckled evilly. “Oh, no, you brought the monster.”**

**Natasha’s back straightened and she turned to face Loki, her expression hard. “So, Banner… that’s your play.”**

**Loki was stunned. “What?”**

“You surprised him though,” grinned Tony. “You made him feel superior enough that he slipped up and told you what you wanted to hear.”

“Simple interrogation techniques,” shrugged Natasha. “Getting under their skin is far more effective than simple interrogation tactics.”

**Natasha reached for her earpiece and walked away from the cell. “Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I’m on my way. Send Thor as well.” Natasha stopped and turned back to Loki’s cell, giving him a short smile. “Thank you for your cooperation.”**

**She walked out, leaving Loki frozen by the knowledge he had been outplayed.**

“You may have outplayed him,” started Thor, “but he also knew his rescue team were on their way and it wouldn’t be long before he escaped. We solved one problem for another.”

**Fury walked into the lab Tony and Bruce were working on the sceptre. Fury was angry, demanding to know what Tony was up to. Tony pointed out they had been wondering the same thing about Fury. Fury stated they were supposed to be locating the Tesseract. Bruce told him that they were and that the model was locked and sweeping for the signature now. If they got a hit, they would obtain the location within half a mile. Tony said that they would get the cube back with no fuss.**

“Getting everything up and running was quite easy. It didn’t take us too long to scan, allowing us to concentrate on other things,” said Tony. “If I’d known Rogers was going to look…”

“What would you have done?” asked Bucky.

“May have tagged along,” shrugged Tony. “Though my presence probably wouldn’t have been welcomed.”

“It would have been far more suspicious if you and I had both been sneaking around,” sighed Steve. “It was better it was just me. Especially since you were supposed to be working with Bruce.”

Tony had to admit Steve had a point. “True.” 

**The monitor next to Tony suddenly beeped as JARVIS finished his analysis of the files. The words Phase 2 appeared on the monitor.**

**“What is Phase 2?” asked Tony.**

**Suddenly, Steve drops a HYDRA Assault Rifle on the table causing Fury, Banner and Tony to look around. Steve did not look happy. “Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons.” He glanced at Tony. “Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow.”**

**Fury turned to explain to Steve. “Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we’re making…”**

“But HYDRA were. They were just disguising what they were doing as part of SHIELD,” noted Natasha. “Any data we collected was sent to their intelligence hubs hidden away.”

“That’s how the sceptre came to us,” explained Wanda quietly. “They took it and sent it to Strucker for his experiments on us.” She remembered that part of her life with regret. Yes, she was grateful for her powers but if they hadn’t volunteered… if they’d stayed clear of any involvement with HYDRA, Pietro may still be alive today. Looking back, there were a lot of choices she would have made differently if given half the chance.

**Tony interrupted, turning the monitor to face Fury, showing they were looking at weapons. “I’m sorry, Nick. What were you lying?”**

Clint groaned. “He really shouldn’t have tried to deny it, even after you had shown you’d hacked into the systems.”

**Steve was disappointed. “I was wrong, Director. The world hasn’t changed a bit.”**

“Did you expect the world to have moved on?” queried Sam.

“I expected the world to have learned using dangerous weapons wasn’t the answer,” stated Steve. “And to not keeping repeating the same mistakes.”

“Hmm, what like how you can repeat the same mistakes but everyone else can’t?” slated Tony quickly.

Steve frowned. He didn’t have an answer to Tony’s accusation, but now his friends were turning against him, he was beginning to see maybe his own viewpoint wasn’t compatible with this world he was living in now.

**At that moment, Thor and Natasha walk into the lab.**

**Bruce asked if Natasha had known about this.**

“Since you never answered my question, did you know?” asked Bruce.

“I did. As did Coulson and Hill,” she admitted. “And Clint. I’m certain once Steve had proved himself, he would have been informed as well.” She briefly glanced at him. “You’d only just been found. We couldn’t risk telling you until we were sure. But, thanks to Tony, you found out.”

Steve pursed his lips together. “I’m glad I did find out.”

**She ignored his question. “You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?”**

**Bruce stated he had already been well removed in Calcutta.**

Bruce folded his arms across his chest. “You could have left me there. Tony would have been all you needed to get the job done.”

**“Loki’s manipulating you,” stated Natasha moving forward.**

**Bruce backed away. “And you’ve been doing what exactly?”**

Tony snorted. “Ironic really. That is what SHIELD tends to do, whether that was a side-effect of HYDRA or not… but you really did like to manipulate others into doing what you wanted. I could never trust SHIELD. I still don’t. Maybe if I hadn’t been treated so badly by you, I may have been a bit more willing to work with you. The fact you didn’t want me full-time suggested to me you had things you wanted to hide and stay hidden. SHIELD manipulates anyone it can come into contact with. And those that it can’t successfully do so, they keep them as far away from them as possible unless they have absolutely no choice. Only reason you called me in was because you had no other option.”

Natasha and Clint exchanged weary glances. They knew Tony had a valid point.

**“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you,” retorted Natasha.**

**“Yes, and I’m not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.” Bruce pointed to the monitor showing the plans.**

**Fury pointed at Thor. “Because of him.”**

**Thor was stunned. “Me?”**

“I didn’t think I had done anything wrong to justify being considered a threat to Earth. I had sworn to protect the Earth,” admitted Thor.

**Fury elaborated further. “Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”**

“Grudge match?” asked Sam.

“Loki,” said Thor. “He attacked me here when I was banished by our father. He was misguided. I don’t think he would have continued to attack the Earth if he had succeeded in killing me. He attacked to draw me out.”

Tony frowned. “People were still injured in his attack though. If you hadn’t come to Earth, there wouldn’t have been a reason to suggest there were other threats out there. I can understand why SHIELD was using HYDRA tech and using the Tesseract too. But I do not endorse it either. I’d rather advance my own technology rather than rely on technology we have no clear idea of what its full capabilities are.” 

“Then why did you mess with the sceptre creating Ultron then?” asked Clint, a little edge in his voice.

Tony sighed. He had figured someone might question him on that. “There were mitigating circumstances at the time.”

Clint looked ready to argue back but Tony raised his hands, stopping him from speaking.

“Look. I’ve tried to explain myself before and none of you understood. Why not wait and see? You’re gonna see it anyway with one of the later movies.” Tony glanced at the pile of discs on the floor. He scrutinised the titles. “I’d take a guess and say you’ll get your answers with the one labelled ‘Age Of Ultron’.”

Clint still didn’t look happy but, surprisingly, it was Steve who intervened.

“I think we should give Tony the benefit of the doubt. We keep judging him and making assumptions when the evidence we’ve seen so far points to maybe we shouldn’t be so… hasty…” Steve even look unsure in what he said but he seemed sincere. “I know I’ve been the worst offender. And, I’m trying to be better.”

Tony eyed Steve carefully. “Thanks… I think.”

**Thor stated that Asgard wanted nothing but peace with Earth. Fury countered saying that they were not the only people out there, nor the only threat, and that the planet was filling up with people who can’t be matched, and they couldn’t be controlled. Steve pointed out like they had tried to control the cube.**

**Thor strolled forward. “Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”**

“Perhaps in hindsight, if we’d known about it before, what our potentially meddling could have done, maybe SHIELD wouldn’t have made those investigations…” murmured Natasha.

“HYDRA still would have though,” pointed out Clint. “We know they were the ones really in control all this time, hiding in the shadows, biding their time.”

“True…” sighed Natasha, not liking Clint’s reasoning one bit. Even if SHIELD had known what their experiments could have caused and stopped them, HYDRA would have secretly continued them regardless. Everything would have happened anyway.

**Steve didn’t like the idea of a higher form of war.**

**Fury said that Asgard had forced their hand and they had to come up with something.**

**Tony spoke quietly from behind Fury. “Nuclear deterrent. ‘Cause that always calms everything right down.”**

**Fury turned to face him. “Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?”**

**Steve strolled forward. “I’m sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-”**

**Tony held up his left hand. “Hold on. How is this now about me?”**

**“I’m sorry, isn’t everything?” asked Steve harshly.**

“What?” Rhodey gaped at Steve. “You barely even know him! And you’ve judged him!”

Tony tapped Rhodey on the shoulder. “Much as I hate to say this but I think we were influenced by the Mind Stone there.”

Bruce frowned. “I don’t think we were. It made us argue but what we said we all felt and thought. We may not have said what we did in that particular way if the sceptre hadn’t been there… but it was still accurate to our thoughts and feelings.”

“It made us frustrated and angry with one another,” noted Natasha.

“Which was Loki’s intent. He knew the Stone would influence us. He wanted to divide us,” said Thor. “Which he did succeed in doing.”

**Thor couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I thought humans were more evolved than this.”**

**Fury whirled on Thor. “Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?”**

Natasha could see it now. “Fury probably wouldn’t have said that in a confrontational way usually. But he would have thought it. Maybe said it in a nicer way which doesn’t cause offence?”

“How does one say what he did nicely?” queried Sam.

Natasha winced. “I’m sure if Fury was here, he’d be able to clear this up for us.”

Tony couldn’t help but snort. Fury had always been rather blunt with him in the past.

**“You treat your champions with such distrust,” stated Thor.**

**“Are you boys really that naïve?” queried Natasha. “SHIELD monitors potential threats.”**

**“Captain America is on the watch list?” Bruce seemed dubious.**

“He’s also on the Wanted List,” whispered Tony to Rhodey.

Steve bit back a retort having heard the remark.

**“We all are,” backed up Natasha.**

**“You’re on that list?” asked Tony, talking to Steve.**

**“I swear to God, Stark, if you make one more wise-crack…”**

**“Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threatened!” stated Tony.**

“Did you really feel threatened?” asked Wanda quietly.

Tony shrugged. “A bit, yeah. The confrontation was making me uneasy. I couldn’t place my finger on why though.”

**Steve was angry. “Show some respect!”**

**“Respect what?” countered Tony.**

**The camera continued to pan around and focus upon the sceptre, the blue gem set into it was slightly growing as the argument continued.**

“It was influencing us,” said Natasha.

“Only getting us to say what we really thought though,” added Bruce. “It shows how much distrust we had in one another. And how some of us have yet to see any different about others.”

Steve cringed. He knew that comment was in reference to him in regards to Tony. He hated that this was all coming back against him.

**Outside the Helicarrier, a lone carrier slowly hovers the ship. A SHIELD operative communicates with the pilots asking what their cargo was as they were not on the log. Insider the carrier, Clint and a small crew suit up, arming themselves. Clint pulled out a hi-tech bow and arrows, ready for his mission ahead.**

Clint was not looking forward to seeing himself attack his own colleagues, perhaps even cause the death of a few. He wanted to squeeze his own eyes shut and pretend this wasn’t happening.

**Back in the lap, the argument continued. Thor stated that they speak of control, yet they courted chaos.**

**“It’s his M.O., isn’t it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We’re… we’re a time bomb,” stated Bruce.**

“That’s rather apt for now…” noted Rhodey.

“Is it?” queried Steve.

“I believe Mr. Rhodes is referring to the breaking of the Avengers thanks to your actions with the Accords, Captain,” stated Vision neutrally.

Steve bit his lip. He disagreed with that.

“We all made mistakes with the Accords,” said Tony quietly. “We all did. But everything was building up to that point and the bomb went off, taking us with it. We were a time bomb and it went off just at the point when we needed to stick together and remain united. I’m not saying none of this was my fault but all of us had a part to play which resulted in what did happen.”

“I think that’s a good analogy,” stated Sam. “None of us are innocent even if we believe we are.” 

**Fury stepped forward pointing at Bruce. “You need to step away.”**

**Tony puts his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?”**

**Steve pushed Tony’s hand away. “You know damn well why! Back off!”**

Steve wanted to scratch his eyes at how hostile he was being. He’d spoken exactly what was on his mind without a care in the world. It was clear the Mind Stone had been influencing them all to make them far more hostile with one another.

**Tony stood in front of Steve. “Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me.”**

**Steve walks slowly around Tony. “Big man in a suit of armour. That that off, what are you?”**

Sam dipped his head. “Oh no…”

**“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,” replied Tony, turning to face Steve.**

There were a few sniggers around the room.

“Nice comeback,” grinned Sam.

Tony shrugged. “It’s only the truth.”

**Natasha shrugged her head to the side, impressed with Tony’s answer.**

**“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”**

“And what footage did you actually see, Rogers?” asked Rhodey, arms folded across his chest. “Only the stuff that SHIELD wanted you to see about Tony? You’ve already seen SHIELD has a false opinion of Tony. You were influenced by them.”

“I’d seen a lot of footage,” explained Steve. “The parties… the scandals…How all you cared about was your money… You didn’t care about others. I saw footage with you in the suit… You were surrounded by kids at birthday parties… Autographs… Talk shows…”

“Wow.” Tony shook his head. “They really did a number on you, didn’t they?” He glared at Natasha. “You saw all the worst bits of my life and nothing positive. Has anything you’ve seen today shown you how wrong you are about me?”

Steve’s shoulders slumped. “Yes. You’ve made the sacrifice play more than once. You didn’t hesitate with Stane…”

“And I didn’t hesitate with the missile either,” sneered Tony, feeling angry.

“No, you didn’t,” Steve bit his lower lip. “I was wrong to say what I did to you that day… You’re a better person than I believed you are.”

“I’m not sure I can believe your apology,” said Tony quietly. “Not after everything…”

“I’m sorry,” said Steve quietly, but Tony didn’t answer, refusing to meet his gaze. 

**“I think I would just cut the wire.”**

**A smirk crossed Steve’s face. “Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”**

Steve wanted to apologise again.

**Tony had finally had enough of Steve’s attitude. “A hero? Like you? You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.”**

“Technically,” intoned Bucky, “that is true. You are only what you are because of the experiment. Not anything you did on your own merits. You may have been selected based on what they saw of you as a person back then, but now… I’m not sure you would be selected.” 

**Outside the Helicarrier, the jet carrying Clint and his crew, continues to hover as the ramp opens. Clint stands at the base, holding out his bow. He pulls out a grenade tipped arrow and points it towards the engine, before shifting his aim and releases the string. The arrow flies out, following the wind current, before the arrow attaches itself to the engine. It has a visible timer which is counting down.**

Clint groaned. He wanted to keep his eyes closed but couldn’t bring himself to keep them shut.

**Back in the lab, Steve puffs up his chest at Tony who just stands there, unmoving. “Put on the suit, let’s go a few rounds.”**

Bucky shook his head. “Oh, boy. You used to do that to your bullies too. Now you are the one being the bully.”

“I wasn’t-” started Steve but Bucky threw him an incredulous look.

“You’re squaring up to a man who is smaller than you, not as strong and who you could easily knock out with a punch to the face – no offence, Stark – and you think you are not being a bully here?”

“That’s the problem, Steve. You do not recognise when you are wrong,” explained Tony. “If you did, perhaps there would be a way to repair our friendship, but at the moment, for me, there is no hope of that ever happening because you cannot recognise your own faults. You need others to point them out for you, whereas I recognise my own faults.”

“I’m trying…” said Steve.

“Then prove it!” shouted Tony angrily. “Start criticising yourself instead of me all the time and then maybe we will get somewhere!”

Everyone was looking between Tony and Steve.

“I can only try, Tony,” muttered Steve quietly. “I can’t change who I am.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. We’re too radically different and we were never supposed to be friends,” retorted Tony. “Maybe if you hadn’t gone into the ice things would have been different. I probably would have grown up around you.”

Steve had to wonder how different Tony would have been if he’d had more positive role-models in his life. It was a thought which would have to wait as the conversation was clearly over.

**Thor laughs. “You people are so petty… and tiny.”**

**Tony rubbed his head with the back of his hand whilst Bruce commented sarcastically that they were a team.**

**Fury ordered Natasha to escort Bruce back to his room however Bruce cut him off stating that the cell that had been built for the Hulk had been rented out to Loki. Fury attempted to justify why the cell had been created but Bruce was not having any of it.**

Sam leaned back. “That sceptre is really aggravating things in that room…”

**“Because in case you needed to kill me, but you can’t! I know! I tried!” There was silence around the room. “I got low. I didn’t see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So, I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!” Banner’s voice becomes harsher as he focuses on Natasha. “You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?”**

“You’re always angry, right?” answered Natasha, remembering something Bruce had said before.

“Only a tiny bit. It’s enough to keep the Hulk placated and staying inside,” explained Bruce. “If I lose that control… only a tiny bit… he can crawl out and take over in an instant. Sometimes I can control when he comes out, others not so much. Sometimes I can be completely oppressed myself and cannot remember anything and he assumes full control and starts to learn, become more human. I worry one day I won’t ever change back.”

Natasha leaned across to tap Bruce on the shoulder. “That won’t happen. We won’t let it. You’re as much a part of this team as the Hulk is.”

Bruce smiled gratefully at her.

**Fury and Natasha reach for their guns at their belts, but Steve notices what Bruce is holding. “Doctor Banner, put down the scepter.”**

**Bruce looks down and sees himself holding Loki’s sceptre in his left hand. He is surprised. The computer on the other side of the lab beeps and they all turn to it. Bruce placed the sceptre down and walks over to the computer. “Sorry, kids, you don’t get to see my little party trick after all.”**

“As soon as I let the sceptre go, I felt normal again,” noted Bruce.

“I felt like a cloud had lifted a bit,” nodded Natasha.

**Thor asks if they have located the Tesseract, and Tony states he could get there fastest. Steve tries to maintain control however Thor counters back. “The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it.”**

**Tony turns to leave but Steve stops him by grabbing his arm. “You’re not going alone!”**

**“You gonna stop me?” Tony demands, slapping Steve’s hand away from his arm, reigniting their argument.**

“Yeah, I’m guessing you didn’t feel normal yet?” eyed Sam, looking at Steve.

“I still felt angry,” sighed Steve.

“Sounds like you were most susceptible to the influence of the sceptre,” said Thor, concern dripping in his voice. “The others returned to normal…” 

**“Put on the suit, let’s find out!”**

Rhodey groaned. “And now you are trying to pick a fight… Yeah, you were definitely still under some sort of influence. Though, it could be argued what we just saw was all you to start with.”

“It wasn’t,” replied Steve. “I think I was so angry still that I couldn’t stop myself.”

**“I’m not afraid to hit an old man!” hissed Tony, squaring up to Steve.**

“And, you’re not helping either,” curtailed Rhodey at Tony.

**“Put on the suit,” stated Steve.**

**Bruce lowers his glasses as he looks at the monitor. He knows where the Tesseract is. “Oh my god!”**

“And, that’s how I knew where to find the Tesseract and where to find you guys later,” smirked Bruce. “I’d already seen the location before the explosion.”

**Outside the Helicarrier, Barton presses the trigger on his bow. The arrow attached to the right engine explodes.**

“Sorry,” winced Clint.

“Doesn’t matter,” soothed Natasha. “You couldn’t help it. You were under Loki’s control. You were not at fault for what happened there that day.”

Clint wanted to look like he believed her words but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. The guilt would always be with him.

**Everyone is thrown in every direction as the explosion and fire rocks through the lab. Steve, Fury, Thor and Tony were thrown across the room whilst Natasha and Bruce were thrown through the window and landed on the grating below. Dark smoke trails from the wrecked engine outside.**

**Steve sits up. “Put on the suit!”**

**Tony readily agrees. “Yeah.” They both stumble to their feet, Steve assisting Tony briefly.**

“I’m glad you forgot about your argument after that,” stated Rhodey.

“There were more pressing things than continue a petty argument,” sighed Steve. He flickered his gaze to Tony who resolutely ignored him.

**Throughout the Helicarrier all SHIELD agents were being ordered to their stations. Fury sits up clutching his ribs. He uses his earpiece, wanting an update from Hill. She is on the Bridge and informs Fury that the number three engine is down from an external detonation. One of the technicians tells her that the turbine is loose but mostly intact. It is impossible to get out there and make repairs whilst they were in the air. Hill commented that if they lost one more engine they wouldn’t be in the air and someone needed to get inside and patch that engine.**

“Let me guess,” sighed Sam, “that person is gonna be you, right?” He pointed to Tony.

“The one and only!” grinned Tony. “I was the only one with a shred of experience who could get the engine working again with the tools I had available. Dangerous work but it had to be done if lives were going to be saved.”

**Fury had been listening in and radioed Tony to see if he was aware. Tony told him he was on it. Fury was on his feet and heading towards the Bridge. He ordered Coulson to initiate an official lockdown in the detention area and then get to the armoury. Fury calls for Natasha.**

**Natasha and Bruce are lying on their fronts. Bruce is breathing heavy, both having landed hard on the grated floor. “I’m okay,” she reported. She saw Bruce flinching, his face intense and the colour of his eyes were different. “We’re okay, right?”**

Bruce bowed his head. “I knew I was already losing the battle to keep Hulk oppressed. I was trying to keep him away for as long as I could so you could escape.”

“I wasn’t going to leave you Bruce,” said Natasha quietly.

**Barton’s jet had landed on the Helicarrier, and he and his team are making their way across the surface. They kick open a panel and rappel down into the corridor below. Clint orders the men to keep the engine down, and orders others to get to the detention but wait for the cameras to go dark. He orders the rest of the men to follow him as they head towards the bridge.**

Clint shook his head, wishing he was somewhere else other than here.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> Clint isn't really enjoying watching what he does on the Helicarrier. 
> 
> Bucky really lost it with Steve. The way I see Civil War is that Steve did prioritise Bucky over everyone else, including the people he was sworn to protect. I will delve more into that when we reach Civil War. Civil War is probably the movie where Steve will get the most development in this series and really have his eyes opened. 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted in TWO WEEKS on Sunday 28th February. If you haven't read the reason why please read my author's note before the chapter. 
> 
> Until next time, 
> 
> the-writer1988


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> I just want to say a big thank you for all the support that was given to me in all your comments relating to needing to take two weeks away. The good news is, is that I've already finished next week's chapter, and about 10 minutes ago I finished the transcript for chapter 9. I'm feeling very hopeful I may finish writing this story this week if I can keep it up. This will not change the update schedule though, it will remain weekly. 
> 
> I'm still not 100% but a lot better than what I was. Pretty much I had a lot of milk which was clearly off (and I was the only one in the household who had this milk) and it really upset my tummy. Badly. I've had the doctors involved and they think it's the milk. This was 3 weeks ago now, and, honestly, it's been horrible. 
> 
> All this in addition to working from home and I just needed these two weeks to not stress about updating. It's helped and I think I can keep a weekly update schedule now until the end of this fic. Even though I've said I hope not to take another break after this fic finishes, I think for my own peace of mind and sanity, I will have at least another 2-week break after the final chapter of this story is posted, possibly longer. It depends on how far I will have progressed with Iron Man 3 in that time. My one desire is to accumulate enough chapters as a back-log that breaks will no longer be needed, unfortunately, I do need time to do that. 
> 
> Some of you may have noticed I posted another fic earlier in the week. I've been going through a bit of a Disney-phase, specifically, a Tangled phase (this film has become my favourite Disney one, plus the series set after the film) in the past month. I'm now dabbling in writing a few stories for it. Please do not be alarmed. I need to write other things in addition to writing this series. Writing a watch-it-series can be a burnout for authors and is primarily a reason why a lot of them remain uncompleted. I do not want that to happen to me, so it is important for me to stretch my writing muscles elsewhere as well. It keeps my creativity alive. I have other Marvel fics I want to write as well, but whilst this Watch-It fic series is in progress I do not feel I can write other Marvel stories, so for me to stretch my writing creativity, I decided to try my hand at some Tangled stories. Any stories I write for that fandom will be quite short compared to the mammoth of this series and will not affect me in writing this one. I just need to write other things in addition to this series. 
> 
> Anyway... onto the chapter!

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**Seven**

**Tony and Steve are running through a dim-debris-filled hall. Tony told Steve to meet him at engine three. Steve peels off in another direction as Tony walks into a storage room. Using his phone, he activated the doors and they moved back to reveal the Iron Man suit, standing waiting. The suit powered up as Tony approached it.**

“I like that you have your own display cabinet on the Helicarrier,” smirked Rhodey. “And you can control it with your phone.”

Tony shrugged. “It was part of my agreement with SHIELD. If they ever needed me in action, they needed a place for me to store my suits. I negotiated a space for them on their Helicarriers and in any of their bases on the provision that only I would have access to it. Fury reluctantly agreed.”

“Smart,” agreed Wanda. “He wouldn’t have been able to steal or study your tech if he couldn’t access it.”

Tony nodded. “Exactly. I know Fury tried to. He never got very far though.”

“I think he gave up after the sixth time of trying,” joked Natasha. “He was furious.”

“Once again, never underestimate me. If people want to try underhanded methods to get hold of any of my tech, they will find that I have pre-empted them every single time. I’m just that brilliant,” grinned Tony.

**Below, where Natasha and Bruce had fallen, Bruce is struggling to suppress the rage inside him. Natasha is trying to pull her leg free from where it was trapped underneath debris. She attempts to calm Bruce. “Doctor… Bruce, you gotta fight it. This is just what Loki wants. We’re gonna be okay. Listen to me.”**

Bruce shuddered. “I couldn’t stop the Hulk from coming out. I was fighting. Fighting so hard to keep him contained because I was scared, he would hurt you.”

**Two approaching SHIELD soldiers arrive to check on her. She waves them away furiously and they ran off.**

**She continued to attempt to calm Bruce. “We’re gonna be okay. All right? I swear on my life I will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never ever…”**

“That was the wrong thing to say…” signed Bruce. “The Hulk was already mostly in control. He was supressing me. He didn’t like what you said.”

“Is that why he kept trying to pursue me?” queried Natasha.

“He would have done so anyway,” replied Bruce sadly. “But your words didn’t help his anger. He wanted to live instead of being trapped inside.”

**She’s cut off as Bruce rounds on her, but his voice had changed as he spoke to her, signalling that the Hulk was beginning to take control. “Your life?”**

“That was the Hulk… wasn’t it?” whispered Wanda, looking slightly scared. She’d never really faced the Hulk. She’d once controlled him, sent him on a crazy destruction spree but had never had the fortune to fight against him. They’d fought together in Sokovia for a brief time but it hadn’t been long.

Bruce nodded sadly. “Definitely not me by then.”

**He jerks back as he starts the transformation. His skin going green and he stumbles back as his clothes begin to rip as the Hulk emerges. He looks back at her, still the eyes of Bruce, and she could see the terror there in his eyes. She makes one last plea to him but the transformation cannot be stopped.**

“You’d already passed the point of no return,” stated Steve. “But we know how to get you back now.”

“Doesn’t work now,” said Bruce. “Thor tried. Though granted it might work if Natasha did it… but I’m not sure if the Hulk trusts her anymore.”

Natasha frowned. “But I helped bring the Hulk out in Sokovia when you didn’t want to.”

“True… I’d forgotten that,” noted Bruce. He should really be angry at her for betraying his trust like that but he wasn’t sure he could be. Her actions had led to the Hulk running from Earth and had kept Bruce condemned to be ‘asleep’ for two years as the Hulk. “Maybe he would trust you then.” 

**With the transformation complete, the Hulk leaps to his feet and roars loudly.**

**Natasha pulled her leg free and stumbles forward. She stops and looks back at Bruce, now fully in the Hulk form.**

“Why did you stop? You should have just run!” shouted Sam. “Silly move! You know he’s a danger to you!”

**He sees her, and his expression is one filled with rage. Natasha runs for the stairs as the Hulk chased after her. She jumped up as the stairs were ripped away from her and started to crawl through the pipe system. The Hulk yanked the grating out from under her but Natasha quickly moved away, swinging herself away as the Hulk roared in anger.**

“I’m glad you were quick and agile enough to escape,” sighed Bruce. As much as he felt conflicted now, he didn’t want anything to happen to Natasha.

Natasha didn’t want to comment that the Hulk had nearly killed her. Bruce would see it anyway.

**In the detention cell, Loki looked up and smiled.**

Tony glared at the screen. “Just what he wanted to happen.”

**Fury runs onto the Helicarrier Bridge ordering the Helmsman to get the carrier over water. The Helmsman questions why as the navigations recalibrated after the engine failure and that they were flying blind. Fury asked was the sun coming up. The Helmsman said it was, and Fury ordered him to move the Helicarrier to the left and get them over water as if one more turbine went down, they would drop.**

Barton groaned. “Which was our plan. We wanted to ruin SHIELD, take out as many people as possible. If it meant taking out innocent lives along the way it didn’t matter. Loki knew if the team was allowed to regroup they stood a chance of beating him.” 

**Steve arrived at the destroyed turbine, passing SHIELD technicians working with fire extinguishers. Steve could see the engine was completely dead and there was a large chunk torn off on the port side. He called to Tony over their ear-communicator.**

**Tony flew in close to the damaged engine, using his interface to assess the damage before him. “I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris.” He started to pull on the stuck rotors before looking over at Steve. “I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position.”**

“Yeah, Steve isn’t gonna know that,” chuckled Bucky. “It’s way too technologically advanced for him.”

“Hey!” Steve glared at his friend.

Bucky shrugged. “You’ve never been comfortable with the updated technology.”

Steve didn’t want to admit that his friend was right, despite knowing in his heart how true it really was.

**Tony flies into the giant cooling conductors whilst Steve jumped across to the other side of the broken railing. He pulls open the control panel and sees a large circuit board with lots of wiring and switches. Tony asked him what it looked like in there.**

**“It seems to run on some form of electricity!” Steve answered, looking confused.**

**“Well, you’re not wrong,” replied Tony.**

“What were you expecting when you opened it?” asked Sam, a slight grin on his face.

“Not… all that!” protested Steve. “I thought it might be more simplistic!”

Tony raised an eyebrow at Steve. “The more technology develops the complicated it will get. The simple days are long over, Rogers.”

“Maybe it would have benefited me if I’d been caught up on technology when I woke up. I wasn’t,” admitted Steve.

Natasha frowned. “That should have been an important aspect of bringing you into service with SHIELD… You had to know some things…”

Steve shook his head. “Fury never really gave me much information. He gave me brief history but not enough I’d know much about it.”

Rhodey sighed. “I think we know where things started to go wrong. Steve wasn’t introduced to everything properly.” 

Tony was beginning to suspect that Fury had deliberately left Rogers in the dark because he wanted to have some control over him: a control which he couldn’t have over Tony. Steve’s lack of worldly-knowledge put him in the perfect place to be molded into the perfect SHIELD operative Fury had wanted. He almost felt sickened by Fury’s manipulation but it didn’t surprise him.

**In the lower equipment room of the carrier, Natasha is stealthily moving through the area with a gun in hand. She reached a catwalk and spins as the Hulk roared out at her. She aimed her gun and fired into a pipe above. Smoke blinded the Hulk momentarily and he tore the pipe down as Natasha made a break for it. The Hulk rushes after her down a long corridor.**

**Behind her the Hulk tears the corridor to pieces as he pursues her. He was gaining on her and she turned to see only for the Hulk to slap her into a wall and falling to the ground.**

They groaned.

“You should have kept running,” scowled Steve.

“He would have caught me anyway,” defended Natasha.

**The Hulk approached Natasha. He raises his fist to strike a killing blow before the Hulk is knocked off his feet and thrown through the wall into another room by Thor who has tackled him from the side.**

Bruce paled. “I nearly killed you…”

Natasha wasn’t going to allow Bruce to believe that. “No, you didn’t. It was the Hulk. He acted on instinct. I’d pissed him off.”

“But I’m the Hulk!” Bruce protested. “He still nearly killed you! No matter what the Hulk does, if he kills people, I feel the blame and the hurt!”

“Bruce, I’m fine. Thor rescued me, remember?” A slight smile tugged at her lips.

Nothing she said would change Bruce’s mind. His resolve was there. He had nearly killed Natasha. The guilt would have been immeasurable if the Hulk had succeeded. 

**They roll across the floor in front of a group of SHIELD personnel. Everyone starts to run. Thor gets to his feet and watches Hulk, waiting for him to make his move.**

**The Hulk lashed out, swinging his arms around, missing Thor by inches. He continued to duck, twisting out the way as the Hulk continued to attack, before managing to nearly bring his fist down on Thor, but the God grabbed it and held it off.**

**“We are not your enemies Banner! Try to think!” argued Thor.**

“Yeah, that’s not gonna work,” said Tony. “The Hulk doesn’t like being reminded of Banner.”

“I didn’t know that at the time,” stated Thor, watching as the fight between them unfolded.

**Hulk raised his arm, giving the impression Thor was pushing him back, but this free fist, Hulk punched Thor’s face with his fist sending him flying back into a stack of crates.**

Thor rubbed his face. “That hurt.”

“Sorry,” apologised Bruce.

**Outside, Tony blasts the broken debris off the turbine engine and finds the rotors are damaged but they are fixable. Steve spoke to him over their earpieces, informing him that the relays were intact and asking what their next move was.**

“What you didn’t see was that I had to explain to Rogers exactly what he was looking at before he could tell me the answer I wanted to know,” sighed Tony. It had been a trying time attempting to educate Rogers and consider how he was going to get the engine running at the same time. He was amazed he hadn’t lost it with Steve.

Steve turned to look at Tony. “I never said… thanks for helping me.”

“Your welcome,” replied Tony hesitantly.

**Tony said even if he cleared the rotors, it wouldn’t re-engage without a jump, and that he’d have to get in there and push. Steve commented that if it got up to speed, Tony would be shredded. Tony told him to stay by the control unit and he would reverse polarity – but Steve interrupted him telling him to speak English.**

“I’ll be pedantic and say he was speaking English,” noted Sam. “You just didn’t understand what he meant by it.”

**Tony sighed, looking a bit impatient. “See that red lever? It’ll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word.”**

**Steve saw the red lever and jumped across to it.**

“Sometimes it is hard to remember to talk in a simpler language,” said Tony. “Especially when I’m stressed. I had the Helicarrier and the people’s fate all on my shoulders if I didn’t get the engine working again.”

“It was Loki who orchestrated it though,” pointed Rhodey. “How would you be to blame?”

“Because,” explained Tony, “it is my responsibility to fix it!”

“But it wouldn’t be your fault if you had failed,” said Clint quietly. “It would have been me because I was the one who blew the engine up.”

“It would have been Loki’s!” shouted Steve. “He was the one behind this. No one else here is to blame if the Helicarrier had crashed. None of us would have been to blame, not even you Clint. You were being mind-controlled. You couldn’t help yourself! No one would have had to take the blame if we’d failed.”

“And you would all likely be dead anyway…” pointed out Sam, “and the rest of the world as well because none of you would have been there to defend New York from the extra-terrestrial attack.”

“If we look at the figures, statistically the blame would lay fully at Loki’s feet,” intervened Vision. “No one else would have had to partake in any blame.”

That seemed to settle it.

**Thor crashes into another box of crates. He wipes blood from his nose. The roar of the Hulk could be heard and Thor extended his hand out. He waited in a knelt down position and his Hammer flew into his hand. The Hulk runs right up behind him but at the last second Thor swung up and hit the Hulk underneath the chin with his Hammer, and Hulk crashed into a fight jet.**

Bruce rubbed his chin. “Ow. I felt that.”

**It only intensified Hulk’s anger as he pulled a piece from the jet and threw it at Thor who slid underneath it, throwing his Hammer. The Hulk caught it and he is dragged backward onto the floor. The Hulk tried to lift the Hammer but couldn’t. He strains with the effort, bellowing in anger.**

“Hulk is definitely not worthy,” laughed Clint. “Remember at the party before Ultron where we were all trying to lift the Hammer? Bruce, you refused to try! We now know the answer!”

Bruce groaned. “If the Hulk isn’t worthy then Bruce definitely is not worthy.”

**Thor leapt up at the Hulk, kneeing him in the face, then grabbed his Hammer and brought up to Hulk’s throat before he leapt onto his back, choking him. Hulk tries to fling Thor off.**

“I was honestly surprised I managed to hold on for so long,” noted Thor.

“I’m guessing the Hulk didn’t like what you did there, did he?” queried Bruce cautiously.

“He did not.”

**On the bridge, Fury and Hill look over their monitors. Fury states they need a full evacuation on the lower hanger bay. Hill acknowledges and begins to leave but not before a grenade is slid across the walkway. She sees it and yells out a warning before it explodes. She is flung off the walkway and Fury holds up his gun and moves to the entrance as a handful of Barton’s men enter.**

**Fury attacks the last man in, wrenching the gun away from him, and knocking him out, taking a second down too, but the third was taken out by Hill who shot him.**

“They were just a distraction for me,” sighed Clint. “I was hiding in the rafters waiting for the right moment to shut down one of the other engines.”

**Coulson walks up to the armoury door. He places his thumb on the scanner and had his eyes scanned as the door unlocked. Over a speaker, an agent announced that they had a perimeter breach and the hostiles were in SHIELD gear.**

**The Hulk crashes up from under the floor, sending Thor flying onto his back. Hulk roared and grabbed him by the neck.**

Bruce tipped his head to the side. “Smart. The Hulk couldn’t dislodge you through flinging you around but by jumping up through the floor he did.”

**Back on the bridge, amongst a firefight with the advancing enemy, Fury and Hill learned that Hulk and Thor were on Research Level 4 and that levels 2 and 3 were dark. Hill commented that the Hulk would tear the Helicarrier apart. Fury ordered her to get his attention. Hill crouched down and radioed to a pilot in a fighter jet outside the Helicarrier, ordering him to proceed to Wishbone and engage hostile. The pilot acknowledged and banked to the right heading towards the intended area.**

“I did wonder how I got off the Helicarrier…” mused Bruce. “This won’t end well for the pilot.”

**The fighter jet moves into position to where the pilot can see Hulk throwing Thor around.**

“Are you even fighting, Point Break?” asked Tony, surprised at Thor’s lack of attempts to fight back.

“I was… recovering my breath!” stated Thor.

“Right…” Tony didn’t believe it.

**The pilot reported that he had acquired the target and fired upon the Hulk. Thor flung himself out the way. A shower of bullets sprayed everywhere and the Hulk roared in anger. The Hulk saw the fighter jet and takes a running start and leaps out of the Helicarrier towards the jet.**

**The pilot looked terrified. “Target angry! Target angry!”**

Bruce held his head in his hands. “Please tell me that pilot survived whatever the Hulk did!”

Natasha reached across to pat him on the shoulder. “He did. He was just scared. Like I was.”

“Doesn’t really help…” muttered Bruce out of the side of his mouth, barely able to bring himself to see through his fingers as to what was happening to the pilot onscreen. 

**The Hulk landed on the jet’s nose and the jet spun wildly as the Hulk started to tear it apart. The pilot ejected but the Hulk catches his seat and flings him around before throwing him away. Smoke billowed from the jet as the fighter pilot moved away, activating his parachute.**

**The jet fell through the air before exploding and sending the Hulk away from the Helicarrier for good.**

“At least the Hulk is no longer a threat to the people on the Helicarrier,” observed Sam. “I’m presuming you reverted back to human form after you fell?”

“Once I crash landed, I did,” confirmed Bruce. “But I don’t remember it happening. I remember waking up in a different place entirely than I expected to be.”

**Iron Man’s lasers cut through a big piece of broken metal which then fall away when he jumps on it, relieving the rotors of the debris.**

**On the other side, Barton’s men enter the port side. Steve looks across at them before jumping back onto their side as they begin shooting at him and throwing grenades. He threw one off the platform and takes down a second before grabbing their gun and using it on the other soldiers, as they continue to attack him. He jumps back up to his previous position, firing down on them.**

“I really should have bought a gun with me instead of needing to take one from my opponents. Would have saved me a lot of trouble,” sighed Steve. Though he disliked using guns, he recognised when there was a need for them, and the Helicarrier attack had been one of the times he should have had one on his person.

**Back on the bridge, Fury is wondering why the men keep on attacking as they were not going to get through.**

“I don’t think he knew I was there, did he?” said Clint.

Natasha shook her head. “He didn’t. Not until he spied you.”

**Clint is hidden in the rafters and shoots an arrow down to the bridge which explodes. In the resulting confusion, he fired another arrow which hit a command desk which hit a USB outlet. Fury sees Barton and fires but the archer has already escaped. The arrow self-activates and inserts itself into the other outlets, hacking every single monitor and main frame. The hacking causes Engine 1 to shut off completely and the Helicarrier begins to dangerously tilt to one side.**

**“Sir, we are on an uncontrolled descent!” Agent Sitwell said.**

**“It’s Barton. He took out our systems. He’s headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?” Fury radioed out.**

“It’ll be Nat who answers. She’s the only one who was available,” said Sam.

Thor raised his hand. “I wasn’t battling the Hulk anymore!”

Sam smirked. “You’ll be heading for your brother who is already in the detention centre.”

Thor frowned. He had been but that wasn’t the point. If they had needed him to stop Clint then he would have done.

**In the lower equipment room, Natasha sits, her knees drawn up to her chest. She looks terrified. She overhears the order and answers, her voice shaking just a bit. “This is agent Romanoff. I copy.”**

**She musters the strength to run off to engage him.**

“I really scared you, didn’t I?” swallowed Bruce, guilt building in his chest as he saw how shaken Natasha had been after the Hulk had attempted to kill her.

“It wasn’t you,” she retorted, wanting him to understand she didn’t blame him.

“Still my body…” sighed Bruce. “But I understand what you’re trying to do.” He smiled gratefully at her.

**As Iron Man started to push one of the rotors round to jump-start the engine, Fury informed him that they were losing altitude. Tony had already noticed and he put on his feet boosters to begin propelling the rotors faster and faster.**

**On the other side, Steve continues to shoot at Barton’s men with the stolen gun. But one of the soldiers gets the upper-hand and forces Steve back until he lost his footing and fell of the railing. He managed to stop his fall by grabbing onto a loose cable.**

Tony’s eyes widened. “Is that why-” He was remembering how long it had taken Steve to pull the lever. He hadn’t known why. He had assumed Steve had been fighting but not trying to hang on for life!

“Yes.” Steve nodded solemnly.

**Thor arrived at the detention section where he found Loki escaping. He charged at his brother but Loki phased himself and Thor fell through his brother’s form and into the cell that Loki had occupied. The projection of Loki faded and the cell door closes on Thor as Loki steps out from his hiding place, smiling.**

**“Are you ever not going to fall for that?”**

Thor groaned. “He keeps on doing it too. But I did get the drop on him eventually.”

**Barton walks alone down a catwalk and Natasha approaches him from behind. Quickly, Clint nocks an arrow and points it at Natasha. A hand-to-hand fight ensures with Natasha managing to duck around Clint and attacking him to disarm him from his bow. They twist and twirl, lashing out against one another until Natasha managed to wrench the bow from him.**

**But he pulled a knife on her.**

Clint winced. “Sorry.”

“Not your fault.” Natasha glanced at her friend. “Please. Don’t.”

**Back in Loki’s former cell, Thor is trapped. He tries to break the glass with his hammer. The cell screen cracks. A loud rumble was heard which violently shakes the Helicarrier. Loki stands there cautiously, with a solider standing guard behind him, one of Barton’s men. When he felt it was safe to move, he walked over to the control panel. “The humans think us immortal. Should we test that?”**

“Would that fall have killed you?” asked Wanda.

“If I’d been in the glass cage when it hit the Earth, the impact would have killed me,” explained Thor. “The glass alone would have done enough damage to fatally injure me. We are hardy folk but not immortal.”

**As Loki leans toward the control panel, he hears a thud and the soldier falls unconscious to the floor.**

**Agent Phil Coulson stands there with a Phase 2 Weapon Prototype. “Move away, please.”**

“Oh no…” swallowed Clint. Coulson had been a dear friend. Everyone had liked him.

Tony felt sad. Coulson’s death had hit him hard which surprised him since he had never felt he really cared for the guy, however, he must have done considering how hard his death had hit him.

**Loki moved away from the switch.**

**Coulson slowly steps forward. “You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don’t know what it does. Do you want to find out?”**

“That’s not the real him, is it?” asked Sam.

No one answered him, too intent on the screen which was about to show Phil Coulson’s final moments.

**Loki had been moving slowly forward and then suddenly Coulson gasped as Loki’s sceptre impaled him through the chest from the back. The God had warped behind him and fatally wounded him.**

“Shit!” Sam swore.

Wanda gasped.

“I’ll never forgive Loki for that!” shouted Clint angrily, spit flying from his mouth.

Tony clenched his jaw together, his fists tight.

Thor only looked down, ashamed at how callously Loki had murdered Coulson.

**Thor screams in anger.**

**Coulson is breathing heavily, slumped on the floor as Loki makes his way back to the control switch.**

**He paused to look at Thor, and the God of Thunder watched him closely. It seemed Loki was hesitating in sending Thor to his doom but then he pressed the button and the hatch beneath the cell opens up. Loki hits the release button and the cell containing Thor spirals out of the Helicarrier and down towards the Earth at speed.**

“It looked like he didn’t want to do it…” noted Tony carefully. “He hesitated. It was brief but it’s there.” He couldn’t be the only one catching the signs, was he?

**Natasha and Clint continued to fight one another. Natasha kickboxes Clint’s face, and he took a swing at her, but she grabbed his arm, twisting it. Clint writhed in pain, tossing the knife in his trapped arm to his free one and slashing at Natasha’s face. She dodged every move, finding herself in a lock hold with him as he forced the knife down towards her exposed throat.**

**As a last resort, she bit his wrist. He yelled and dropped the knife.**

Clint rubbed his wrist. “That… hurt.”

“I’m not going to apologise for stopping you from killing your best friend,” stated Natasha.

“Wasn’t asking you too,” finished Clint.

**Natasha wrapped her legs around his neck, flipped him over and arm locks him before she slammed his head into a pipe's rail. Clint went down, hard. Dazed, he looks up at her, his eyes starting to clear.**

**“Natasha?”**

**Natasha punched him in the face, knocking him flat out cold.**

“I wasn’t taking any chances with you, in case you were faking it,” said Natasha. “Didn’t want you trying to attack me by making me believe I had magically cured you.”

“Probably a wise move,” agreed Sam.

“It did work though,” added Clint. “She did clear my head but I know why she knocked me out.”

“I’d rather you were restrained when you woke up so we could determine if your mind truly was free,” explained Natasha. “We couldn’t take any chances with you.”

**Thor, trapped in the glass cage, bounces off the walls of the cell as it tumbles through the air. Thor tried to break the glass so he could escape but was unable to maintain position to get a good aim. As the land gets closer and closer, Thor leapfrogs from one side of the cell to where the crack in the window was, using his Hammer to smash through. He tumbled out and flying out into the meadow just as the cell crashed and shattered into pieces on the shoreline.**

Wanda breathed a sigh of relief. “That was lucky.”

“I was still out of the battle though,” pointed out Thor. “I wasn’t in the place I should have been.”

**Loki had no remorse on his face as he looked down, closing the hatch, and proceeds to leave until Coulson’s weak voice stopped him.**

**“You’re gonna lose.”**

Thor gaped. “He was still alive?”

“You didn’t know?” asked Natasha. “He survived for a short while. He’d been fatally injured. There was no recovering from that… just a slow death.” 

**Loki turned to face him. “Am I?”**

**“It’s in your nature.”**

**Loki didn’t believe him. “Your heroes are scattered; your floating fortress falls from the sky… where is my disadvantage?”**

**“You lack conviction,” stated Coulson, blood dribbling down the side of his mouth.**

“So, he saw it too…” whispered Tony.

“Saw what?” queried Rhodey quietly.

“Loki’s actions are not consistent with someone who really wants to conquer the Earth. Seeing this back now, all the signs are there. Hesitating to send Thor to his death, that’s just one of them. Sure, he played us to get on board the Helicarrier, but he didn’t even defend the portal technology on top of my own building to stop us from interfering. Someone who desperately wants to win would have taken every precaution necessary,” explained Tony.

“You believe he wanted to lose?” Rhodey wasn’t too sure about that.

“I think he hoped to… But I could be misreading the situation,” advised Tony, though he didn’t really think he was. 

**Loki stepped forward angrily. “I don’t think I…”**

**He never had the chance to finish as Coulson used the Phase 2 Weapon to blast Loki directly in the chest, causing him to crash through the wall behind him.**

**“So that’s what it does,” said Coulson weakly.**

Clint almost cheered but then sobered at the price Coulson had, had to pay just to blast Loki through the wall.

**Back on the bridge, Fury continues to monitor the situation as an announcement went out to tell everyone to get to their crash positions.**

**Outside, Tony continues to spin Engine 3, attempting to keep it running by itself as soon as it was up to speed. The rotors are continuing to propel faster and faster. The Helicarrier begins to level off, stopping its fall.**

**Inside the suit, Tony tells Steve to get the lever.**

**Steve answered that he needed a minute as he was still hanging from the piece of cable he had grabbed onto, still struggling to pull himself back up.**

**“Lever! Now!” Tony retorted.**

“I feel I owe you an apology here,” said Tony quietly. “I didn’t know how bad your situation was when I gave you that order.”

Steve shrugged. “It’s fine. You didn’t know. And, I didn’t exactly tell you either. I should have done. You may have given me more warning to get back up to the lever so you weren’t stuck in there for longer.”

At least they were both admitting they had made mistakes, which for Tony showed Steve was slowly making some headway in recognising his own mistakes.

**Steve managed to haul himself back up onto the grating as one of Barton’s men continues to fire bullets at him.**

**Tony lets go of the rotors as they spin faster and faster and he is unable to keep up with their speed. He is slammed back against the rotor behind him and he slips underneath them, caught between all the rotors as they spin quickly.**

Rhodey cringed. “That… must… have… hurt.”

“It did. I honestly thought I was going to be crushed to death,” admitted Tony. “At least Steve had a good reason for not helping me out earlier.”

**Steve reaches for the lever and pulled it down.**

**A vent opens up from Engine 3 as Tony falls out, his suit sparking dangerously, damaged and hardly able to keep him up. He managed to stabilise himself and engaged his boosters to fly back to where Steve was, taking out the soldier who was still firing at Steve.**

**He tackled the soldier to the grating, knocking him unconscious.**

**Tony rolls over, tired and Steve let out a sigh of relief.**

“Even though I managed to knock that guard out, I didn’t recognise how bad Roger’s position was until now,” sighed Tony.

“I’ll try to be more open next time,” vowed Steve. “Sometimes I think this team has a problem with communication – and I know some of that is my fault – and the secrets we keep. We all keep.”

“Sometimes we have to keep secrets,” said Tony quietly. “Because we believe it is the right thing to do even though it may not be.”

The point was there. Steve keeping the murder of Tony’s parent’s deaths from him had not been Steve’s choice to make and he had deliberately kept the truth from the Inventor. Steve did regret that choice but he had been trying to protect Bucky.

He hoped the others would understand his reasoning but considering the way his friends were turning against him, he doubted his actions during the Accords were going to win him any favours. He wasn’t looking forward to that movie at all. 

**On the deck, the QuinJet used to smuggle Barton and his crew onboard leaves with Loki and his sceptre and flies into the distance.**

**Fury finds Coulson still alive, but barely.**

**Coulson tried to apologise but Fury ordered him to stay awake and keep his eyes on him.**

**“No… I’m clocking out here,” whispered Coulson.**

**Fury said it wasn’t an option.**

Natasha sighed. “He doesn’t have a choice. Coulson’s wound was fatal. No matter what medical treatment there is, there is no bringing someone back from that.”

**“It’s okay, boss,” managed Coulson. “This was never going to work… if they didn’t have something… to…”**

**Coulson couldn’t finish his sentence. He sighs his last breath and died.**

**Fury looks on grimly at Coulson as the medical team arrives.**

The members who had known Coulson all shared sad looks and bowed their heads in recognition of the Agent. They had fought for him and still continued to do so. Coulson had brought them together, and though they hadn’t made a big success of it as Coulson had wanted, they had still become a functioning team when it mattered.

Despite everything, they were still there for each other whenever someone needed it.

**As Fury speaks over his earpiece to the whole of the Helicarrier they see Hill being treated for a gash on her head, paramedics attending Coulson, Barton’s body being dragged away from Natasha and Tony and Steve standing in the same area they had been before. Fury sadly informs them that Coulson has died.**

Natasha placed a hand on her chest. “When I heard he had died… I felt like a little piece inside me was gone as well.” It had been difficult to dislike Coulson. He was a good agent who had died too young.

**Steve and Tony sat at the table in the briefing room with Fury standing off to the side. Maria Hill stood nearby, a look of sadness on her face. In Fury’s hands were some cards.**

**“These were in Phil Coulson’s jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them.” He threw the cards at Steve.**

**Steve picked one up. They are stained with blood.**

“Bit iffy he rummaged through a dead man’s clothes,” shuddered Wanda.

“He was trying to prove a point,” answered Tony. “That if we want to have something done, we should just do it, because we never know when we are going to die until it happens.”

It was a good analogy, one Wanda hoped to remember.

**“We’re dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming.” He paused briefly. “Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier.” Fury slowly paced around the table. “There was an idea, Stark knows this, called The Avenger’s Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could becoming something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.”**

**Tony is visibly getting frustrated by Fury’s words.**

**“Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes.”**

**Tony got up from his chair and walked off.**

**Fury watched him leave. “Well, it’s an old-fashioned notion.”**

“Why did you walk off?” asked Rhodey. “You were getting very irritated throughout Fury’s speech.”

Tony chewed his lower lip. “Because, no matter how many people say it, none of us are heroes. We may act like them, we may live up to the hero name, but are any of us really heroes?” He cast his gaze around the room, meeting the eyes of everyone there. “After everything we have done in our lives before the Avengers, are any of us really _heroes_?”

No one could answer him.

It was a sobering thought.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> Now, those who have watched Agents of Shield will know Coulson was resurrected in that show but what is not clear was whether the Avengers ever knew themselves, especially since Coulson never shows up in the films again. I've decided to stick with the narrative that Coulson's survival is on a strict-to-know basis and the Avengers just don't know. It's a lot easier that way. It may be in the fic set after this series where the Avengers are trying to change the future that they may then learn about Coulson but I haven't decided yet. 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted next week, Sunday 7th March! 
> 
> Until then, 
> 
> the-writer1988


	8. Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good Afternoon everyone! 
> 
> I am very pleased to report that yesterday afternoon I finished writing this story. The next three chapters are DONE. I wanted to finish writing this story by the end of this weekend and I did! It feels really good to be in a position where I am finally ahead of myself in my writing. Weekly updates will remain as I will be using the next three weeks to make some headway on Iron Man 3. If I have a good backlog of chapters for that story by the time I finish posting this story on the 28th March, I will be able to start posting Iron Man 3 the following week without needing to take a break. This does all depend on how much I get written over the next three weeks, and, as I said last week, I do want to write other things as well. 
> 
> At the moment, I have just started transcribing the Iron Man 3 movie. I've got the script but to turn it into how I describe the movies in these fics does take a bit of time, as it involves watching the movie, constantly pausing it and writing out what I see, whilst double checking the script I've got. I am aiming to get the IM3 transcript finished by next weekend and I hope to have started the first chapter too and planned out how many chapters that story will be. 
> 
> Secondly, please do not post spoilers for any of the Marvel shows on Disney+ in reviews. I had a reviewer spoil the ending of WandaVision for me before I had seen it. (I deleted that review). Anything that is revealed in the Disney+ shows that differs from what I've already said in this fic will not be changed to reflect the new canon. Though I am quite pleased that we now know Wanda's birth date and she was already into her 20's when Age Of Ultron happened. A lot of people took Steve Roger's at his word when he referred to her as "just a kid" in Civil War... Yeah, no, Steve, she's not. 
> 
> This chapter is a bit on the shorter side but I wanted to end it at a specific place and have the start of the battle for New York in the next chapter. 
> 
> Please do, enjoy!

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**Eight**

**Thor walks out far into the meadow towards where Mjölnir lay. He scrunched his fist closed in frustration.**

“What were you frustrated with there?” asked Bruce.

“Loki,” sighed Thor, remembering how he had felt back then. He remembered feeling that he would always love Loki, no matter what he did. “And… what had happened to Coulson. I could have saved him if I’d tried.”

Steve shook his head. “You couldn’t, Thor. You wouldn’t have broken out in time. Loki would have dropped the cell sooner. Even then it may not have been enough to save him.”

Thor could see the logic but he couldn’t help but feel guilty at his lack of ability to save innocent people who did not deserve to have their lives so cruelly cut short.

**In an abandoned building, Bruce wakes up in human form. He looked around and saw that he was laying in a pile of rubble, and looks up as he saw the ceiling he had crashed through. He is completely naked and a security guard stands there, amazed. The old man told him he had fallen out of the sky.**

“I was so confused when I woke up,” explained Bruce. “The first thing that went through my head was ‘where am I?’ and ‘is everyone else ok?’”

“I wonder how long that old man was standing there for though,” noted Bucky. “He looks like a Janitor, and you’ve just wrecked the building he was in charge of.”

“Probably,” winced Bruce. He had never really bothered to find out any more details from the old man who had helped him. He regretted it now. The old man hadn’t judged him for his other-self. Just simply accepted it.

**Bruce’s first concern was whether he had hurt anybody. The guard informed him there was nobody around here to get hurt. He had scared some pigeons though. Bruce was relieved. The guard said he must have had good aim and that he was awake when he fell. Bruce asked if the guard had seen him. The guard confirmed he had, and that he had been big and green and buck ass nude. The guard tossed him a pair of trousers.**

“Anyone else find it strange he happened to have a spare pair of trousers lying around which were the exact size to fit you?” asked Sam.

“They were a bit tight…” Bruce pointed out. “Especially around the waist. I think they were just another pair of his own trousers for work.”

“I suppose you were lucky he had a spare otherwise you may have been coming to our fight without any clothes on,” teased Tony/

“If that had happened, I wouldn’t have been making an appearance in New York,” pointed out Bruce.

**“I didn’t think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size fella,” said the guard.**

**Bruce thanked him.**

**“Are you an alien?” the man continued.**

“Definitely not,” answered Bruce. The question the first time had shocked him. Now he was prepared for it.

“What a thing to ask though!” chuckled Sam, doubling over in laughter.

“Can we blame him though?” queried Steve. “It’s not exactly normal for people to turn green or shrink from a big green monster into a human.” He had a point after all.

**Bruce was surprised.**

**“From outer space, an alien?” the guard confirmed.**

Bruce shook his head. “I couldn’t even answer straight away. I was surprised by the question. He seemed so cool about it even if I had said yes.”

“He seems like he would have taken it in his stride,” noted Tony.

**Bruce shook his head. “No.”**

**“Well then, son, you’ve got a condition.”**

Tony snorted. “That’s putting it mildly.”

“A condition I really wish I could fix which was suitable for both of us,” sighed Bruce quietly. He really wished there was a way the two facets of his personality could live in peace without the need to becoming a big green rage monster. He wanted a _normal_ life but he doubted that was going to happen anytime soon. The Hulk was more in control now than Bruce was, and he’d only reverted back to being Bruce because they’d been pulled to this room to watch these movies. He knew as soon as he and Thor were returned to the space ship he would revert to Hulk’s form again and Bruce himself would be asleep, waiting to be let out again, if he ever would be.

**Clint is strapped down in the medical bay, his wrists tied to the bed. Natasha watches over him as he tried to shake off Loki’s mind control. She told him he was going to be alright.**

**Clint wasn’t so sure. “You know that? Is that what you know? I’ve got… got no window. I have to flush him out.”**

“Was he trying to get back control?” asked Sam.

Clint bit his lower lip. “I’m not sure. I thought he was. I think it was more my head was dizzy and I didn’t feel like myself.”

**“You got to level out. It’s gonna take time,” said Natasha as she poured some water into a cup.**

**“You don’t understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in? Do you know what it’s like to be unmade?” Clint looked fearful.**

Wanda looked down. That’s exactly what she had done to the other Avengers when she had attacked them. Clint had stopped her from doing it to him and now she knew how badly it had affected him. Guilt flared into her. She’d done some terrible things all in her quest to get revenge.

Revenge on a man that she had seriously misjudged.

Tony Stark was not who she had assumed he would be.

How could they be so nice and forgiving to her? Wanda didn’t understand. Maybe when it came to watching about Ultron she could ask because right now she didn’t feel she had earned their forgiveness.

**“You know that I do,” she confirmed.**

**Clint took a few seconds before he could respond, calming himself down. “Why am I back? How did you get him out?”**

**Natasha moved back to sit on the chair. “Cognitive recalibration. I hit you really hard in the head.”**

Clint rubbed his head. “Sometimes I swear I can still feel it.”

Natasha grinned. She was good in hand-to-hand combat.

**Clint thanked her as she undid the restraints on his wrists. He started to ask her how many agents he had killed. She told him not to do that to himself, and that this was all on Loki. They hadn’t been trained to face monsters and magic. Clint asked if Loki had got away which Natasha confirmed, though she wondered if Clint knew where. He didn’t know but he knew Loki would be making his play that day though.**

“I know you told me not to think about,” started Clint, “but I still think about the Agents that died that day because of my actions. I sometimes wonder if I deserve the forgiveness offered to me by their families. Children lost their fathers, wives lost their husbands, sisters lost their brothers…and vice-versa… It’s all on me. I led that attack.”

“But you’re not at fault,” explained Tony quietly. “You were under mind-control. You couldn’t help it.”

“But I allowed Loki to mind-control me in the first place!” Clint shouted back.

“No, you didn’t.” Tony stood up. He knew Clint didn’t like him but he wasn’t going to let him wallow in self-pity when the archer hadn’t done anything wrong to deserve it. It wasn’t his fault Loki had taken control of him and forced him to act for his will. “You lost your own free will. You had no choice. You didn’t allow him to mind-control you either. It happened so quickly you didn’t stand a chance. Stop blaming yourself, Clint.”

Clint looked at him curiously. “Why are you defending me after all I’ve said about you?”

Tony sighed. “Because I understand self-pity more than people believe I do. I live with it every day too. I don’t want anyone else to keep believing they are at fault for anything when the culprit in your case was Loki.”

Bruce leaned into Thor. “Any chance Loki would apologise to Clint for what he did to him?”

Thor regarded Bruce with concern. “Loki never apologises.”

“That’s a no then…” sighed Bruce. It had been worth a shot.

“Though… it is worth a shot…” mused Thor. “But unlikely to amount to much!” He would at least try, even if Loki rebuffed him. 

**“We gotta stop him,” she said.**

**Clint agreed, sipping from the cup. “Yeah? Who’s we?”**

**Natasha shrugged. “I don’t know. Whoever’s left.”**

“I didn’t know who was still on board at that time,” admitted Natasha. “I had been more concerned about getting Clint the help he needed to consider the rest of you.”

“Understandable,” praised Steve. “I would have done the same if it had been Bu-” He saw Bucky’s disproving expression and quickly corrected himself. “-any of you.”

Tony wasn’t fooled though. Bucky had been the only one on Steve’s mind then. Steve had already proven how much Bucky meant to him by leaving Tony to freeze in Siberia with a damaged suit. He hadn’t _cared_. He’d been lucky to get back home after that fight.

It seemed no one else had noticed Steve’s slip of the tongue or if they had, they’d decided not to comment.

**Clint was quiet. “Well, if I put an arrow through Loki’s eye socket, I’d sleep better I suppose.”**

Clint folded his arms across his chest. “I’d still settle for that now.”

**“Now you sound like you.” Natasha sat down next to Clint.**

**He looked at her, assessing her. “But you don’t. You’re a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?”**

**“He didn’t. I just…” She paused.**

**“Natasha,” Clint said gently.**

**“I’ve been compromised. I got red in my ledger. I’d like to wipe it out.”**

“We’ve all got things we’d like to wipe out,” said Bucky. “But… sometimes it is not possible. Just trying to do the right thing can ease the guilt but it doesn’t erase what we’ve done in our pasts.” He looked torn as to whether he should continue or not. “Though we have red in our ledgers, can we really clear it? We can’t bring back those we’ve killed, can we?”

“Depending on your point of view,” answered Tony. “My conscience will never be clear but I know I’m trying to do the right thing _now_ to make up for decades of being an egotistical, self-centred billionaire who didn’t care about war or who it hurt as long as it made me a fortune… For me, no matter how many lives I save, it will never make up for the lives lost caused by my weapons. I can never clear the red in my ledger, no matter how much I try to. It will always be with me. All I can do is try to be a better person and help those who need it now.”

Natasha was silent. She wanted to have a clear conscience. But was Tony right? Was it impossible for her to clear the red in her ledger? Was the only thing she could do was try to do the right thing in the future?

“But for others,” began Sam, “it can clear the red in our ledger if we are able to right the wrongs we have done, even if we cannot bring back the loved one’s people have lost… It all depends on us as a person. For Bucky and Tony, they do not believe they can clear their conscience, but you may feel differently, Nat. It is very possible you can clear the red in your ledger but only you will know when you have succeeded.”

Two different opinions but enough for Natasha to stop and think.

Arguably she had done worse than Tony and she had known what she was doing was wrong but had no option. Tony, on the other hand, had been complacent and uncaring as long as the money kept rolling in. So, who was worse out of them?

_We both are,_ she realised. There was no competition between them. _I feel I can clear my ledger but Tony doesn’t believe he can._ She still wanted to believe she could. There had to be an action she could take which would clear her name and her history, wasn’t there?

_Whatever it is, I’ll keep trying,_ she vowed. She wanted to clear the red in her ledger.

**Tony stands in the detention section, where Loki’s cell container had once been. He is silent as Steve walks in and leans against the railing to the left of him.**

**“Was he married?” asked Steve.**

**“No. There was an uh… cellist, I think.”**

**Steve looked down. “I’m sorry. He seemed like a good man.”**

“He was,” smiled Clint sadly. “He was one of the best agents. Very loyal to Fury. But he knew when to defy orders, always made the right choice.”

**“He was an idiot,” answered Tony.**

Natasha frowned but didn’t make a comment, quietly motioning to Clint to not say anything as she wanted to hear how Tony had justified his comment to Steve.

**“Why? For believing?” Steve queried.**

**“For taking on Loki alone.” Tony walked back along the ramp.**

Clint’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah… You are right. He shouldn’t have done that.”

Steve was surprised. “You too?”

**“He was doing his job,” defended Steve.**

“He could have waited. Could have grabbed someone else on his way there but he didn’t. He chose to go it alone,” said Natasha quietly. “He did what any of us would do. But as Agents, we have to determine and assess whether the risk, we are taking is necessary. Loki was already out of the cell. He could have followed Loki, tried to stop his Jet from leaving… There are many actions Coulson could have taken and he chose to confront Loki instead.”

He didn’t like thinking it but Clint had to admit Natasha was right. There had been other options Coulson could have taken but hadn’t. He’d done what he considered the best option for him which had resulted in his untimely death.

**Tony started to walk towards Steve’s position. He scoffed. “He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…”**

**“Sometimes there isn’t a way out, Tony,” explained Steve as he approached the Inventor.**

Sam groaned. “Not everyone is a soldier, Steve. Soldiers are trained knowing they may die in battle. Are Agents of Shield trained like soldiers?” He glanced around the room for verification. Both Natasha and Clint shook their heads.

“We’re trained to recognise the possibility but not to expect to die on duty,” revealed Clint. “Steve… you think like a soldier too much.”

**Tony walked past Steve. “Right, I’ve heard that before.”**

**“Is this the first time you’ve lost a soldier?” asked Steve.**

Rhodey cringed. “Bad move.”

**Tony whirled on him, tetchy. “We are NOT soldiers!” There was an uncomfortable silence between them. “I’m not marching to Fury’s fife.”**

Steve bowed his head. “I understand now. Afghanistan. I didn’t know at the time but it makes sense. I’m sorry.”

Tony inclined his head. “Many soldiers died because of me. Coulson wasn’t a soldier either.”

“I know…”

“We’re not the army, Steve,” swallowed Natasha. “None of us are or have ever been soldiers. We’re trained to survive, not to die.”

Steve nodded. “I understand the difference now… between soldiers and agents. I won’t make that mistake again.”

**“Neither am I,” defended Steve. “He’s got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. But right now, we’ve got to put that behind us and get this done. Now, Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list…”**

**Tony looked at the blood-stained wall where Coulson had died. A realisation struck him. “He made it personal.”**

**“That’s not the point,” disagreed Steve.**

**“That is the point. That’s Loki’s point. He his us all right where we live. Why?”**

**“To tear us apart,” answered Steve.**

“When you two are not arguing, you statistically work well together,” stated Vision, looking between Tony and Steve.

**“Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That’s what he wants. He wants to beat us; he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.” Tony walked past Steve.**

“I’m surprised you haven’t realised he’s targeting the most public Avenger yet…” pointed out Bruce. “I had seen the location before the explosion.”

“I’m getting there,” replied Tony.

**Steve was beginning to agree. “Right, I caught his act at Stuttgard.”**

**Tony continued to walk away, the epiphany continuing to hit him. “Yeah. That’s just a preview, this is opening night. And Loki, he’s a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…” Tony paused as he came to a sudden realisation. “Son of a bitch.”**

A chuckle went around the room.

Rhodey clapped him on the back. “Well done, you’ve just accurately described yourself!”

Tony groaned. Rhodey had to be the one to say it.

**The next scene showed Doctor Selvig working on the CMS device that had been set-up on top of the Stark Tower.**

“How did they get access to Stark Tower though?” asked Wanda. “You would have your own security throughout the building.”

“The sceptre,” explained Tony. “They used it on every employee they came across in the building on the way up to my penthouse.”

**Steve enters the medical bay, telling Natasha that it was time to go. She asked where. Steve said he would tell her on the way and queried whether she could fly one of the jets. Clint walked out of the restroom and looked at Steve, informing him that he could.**

**Steve briefly glanced at Natasha where she indicated Clint was now on their side. “You got a suit?”**

**Clint nodded. “Yeah.”**

**“Then suit up.”**

“And, you trusted Clint despite the fact he’d been trying to kill you all hours before?” queried Rhodey.

“I trusted Natasha’s judgement. She knew him best,” defended Steve.

Rhodey shook his head. “And yet, you had only just met her as well. You trusted Natasha without knowing her well but you didn’t trust Tony even though you didn’t know him well either. You’ve had two different reactions to two people you’ve only just met. You cannot see anything wrong with that?”

Steve bit his lower lip. “I can. Natasha was my colleague. Tony wasn’t. He was independent. I was going to trust an experienced SHIELD operative over Tony simply because we were already colleagues even though we had not worked together before.”

“Don’t you have to gain trust in your colleagues first?” pointed out Clint.

“No, at least that isn’t how I was taught,” continued Steve. “Look, I know I screwed up. I should have given Tony a chance. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

Rhodey didn’t look convinced but Tony gently shook his head, telling him to accept it and move on.

**Over heroic music, Thor picked up his Hammer; Steve picked up his shield and cap; Clint grabbed his quiver and his arrows; Natasha attaches a glove gauntlet to her wrist and a blue light charged up, and Tony worked on his Iron Man helmet as the lights powered back on.**

**Thor raised his hammer into the sky as electricity crackled all around him; Tony’s helmet interface turned on, as Steve, Clint and Natasha made their way towards a Quinjet.**

**A SHIELD technician tried to stop them as they were not authorised, however, Steve told him not to try to interfere.**

“I liked when he ran out of the jet with a little look of fear on his face,” grinned Clint.

**On the Helicarrier bridge, Fury holds Coulson’s cards in his hands as Agent Hill approaches him.**

**“Sir.”**

**“Agent Hill?”**

**“Those cards, they were in Coulson’s locker, not in his jacket.”**

“He tricked us,” gaped Steve. He hadn’t known the cards had never been in Coulson’s jacket.

“He was trying to motivate us,” answered Tony. “It worked, in a way.”

Steve knew when he saw Fury again, he would have to confront him about the trickery he had used with the cards.

**Fury looked at the cards. “They needed the push.”**

“I think Mr. Stark would have realised Stark Tower was the place where Loki was even without the cards,” said Vision. “Statistically, the conversation between himself and Mr. Rogers would have still happened. The same conclusion would have happened.”

**Out of the corner of his eye, Fury spotted Iron Man’s departure from the hanger bay as a radio communication came over the tannoy informing them of the unscheduled departure of the Quinjet that followed Iron Man out into the skies.**

**“They found him. Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything.”**

**Hill acknowledged. “Yes, sir.”**

“There I thought he always had eyes on everything,” grinned Tony.

“He does when all the equipment is working at one hundred percent capacity,” added Natasha.

“Point, well made,” smirked Tony. He leaned back in his seat. He was beginning to feel a bit anxious. He knew they would soon get to the part where he went up into the wormhole in the sky.

He did not want to see what was on the other side of it again. The memory of that trip remained engraved upon his brain but the memory had started to fade over the years with detail disappearing as each day went by. Now he would have to see it again, and he didn’t want the nightmares to start again.

He sighed quietly to himself, still not liking this one bit. _But they will._ He would just have to get on with it and hope any nightmares he did have didn’t adversely affect him as he was dreading they would.

_Suck it up, Stark. You can get through this._

He didn’t have a choice after all. 

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think!
> 
> I do not think there is much I can say about this chapter... It's setting up the battle. The next few chapters will have less lengthy conversations because them watching the Battle of New York doesn't really lend itself to long conversations. But, I've tried my best to make the following chapters interesting! 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted Sunday 14th March! 
> 
> Until then,
> 
> the-writer1988


	9. Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good afternoon everyone! 
> 
> To give you an update on the progress of writing Iron Man 3... well, the transcript is not done. I'm only 15 minutes into Iron Man 3. I've got enough of the transcript to at least do the reactions for one chapter but I want to get the transcript done before I even start on that. I'm even tempted to try to get the transcripts done for Age of Ultron and Civil War before I even start writing out Iron Man 3 in full. I'm debating on what I want to do. I know I said I hope not to take a posting break in between this story and the next... but... at the moment it is more than likely to happen but the duration is not decided yet as it depends on how the next two weeks go. I am enjoying my time writing other things as well at the moment but tomorrow and Tuesday I am dedicating myself to writing out as much as the Iron Man 3 transcript as I can. Hopefully, in two weeks, when I post the final chapter, I will be able to give a better indication on what happens next regarding posting the next story in the series. 
> 
> I know a lot of people are excited for this chapter... I hope I have not disappointed!

**Understanding the Real Hero: The Avengers**

**Nine**

**Iron Man flies toward Stark Tower where Selvig is in the process of activating the CMS device holding the Tesseract. His suit keeps malfunctioning in mid-flight. JARVIS informs Tony that he had turned off the Arc Reactor within the building but the device was already self-sustaining. Tony ordered Dr. Selvig to shut the machine down. Selvig told him that it was too late and that Loki wanted to show them something: a new universe.**

Tony shivered. He hated that portal and what he had seen through it. How badly it had affected his mental state and the anxiety and panic attacks that came with it. _I’m really not looking forward to this._ He wished he could leave the room for the duration of what was coming up. He didn’t want to be here.

Rhodey glanced at him, a flicker of concern crossing his features. “You ok?”

Tony shook his head. “Not really.” He was showing a vulnerability to one of the only people he could trust to always have his back.

“Maybe when they see themselves what you saw they will finally understand?” mooted Rhodey.

“Maybe,” he answered quietly.

**Tony wasn’t convinced and aims his hand repulsor at the CMS device and fires. The energy from his boosters shatters with a deafening crack. Selvig flies backward, hitting his head in the process. Tony is thrown through the air, his suit struggling to maintain power.**

“You really need to get out of that suit,” said Steve.

“That was my aim in going to the Tower first as you know,” explained Tony. “I needed a new suit, especially if we were going to have a fight on our hands. We knew it was likely Loki would be there.”

Rhodey folded his arms across his chest. “I’m surprised you let him go on his own, Steve.”

“I was outvoted. We thought the portal would be opened once we all arrived so Tony going ahead was a strategy we used,” shrugged Steve.

“Couldn’t have stopped him anyway,” smirked Natasha. 

**Below, citizens of New York look up in shock at Stark Tower as they see the form of Iron Man above them.**

**The CMS device is still intact, no damage taken to it.**

**Tony hovers in mid-air.**

**“The barrier is pure energy. Its unbreachable,” analysed JARVIS.**

“Unless you have the sceptre,” muttered Natasha quietly though the others didn’t hear her.

**“Yeah, I got that.” Tony looked down and sees Loki waiting for him out on his balcony. “Plan B.”**

“We had more than one plan?” queried Clint.

Steve shook his head.

“You didn’t, but I did,” grinned Tony. “Plan A was to try to destroy the device. I had already predicted it was likely to fail. Worth a shot though. Plan B was to change suits. Unfortunately, I had to deal with Loki when I didn’t have any weapons on me.”

“I can’t see you being defenceless,” noticed Bucky. “In your own Tower.”

“I was relying on JARVIS to get me a replacement suit as quickly as possible,” answered Tony.

“Did you have a plan C?” Sam wondered.

“The existence of plan C depended on the outcome of my conversation with Loki,” explained Tony. 

**“Sir, the Mark VII is not ready for deployment,” notified JARVIS.**

“JARVIS was against the clock in deploying the Mark VII,” mused Vision. He glanced at Tony. “You always put a lot pressure on me, Sir.”

“You never seemed phased about it,” quipped Tony.

“It was never in my programming, Sir,” stated Vision. He tilted his head to the side a bit, a look of confusion settling over his face. “It appears JARVIS manifested himself there, as if I was an AI again…”

“It may help hearing JARVIS again. It may trigger the fragments of memory you do have of him,” theorised Bruce. 

“Possibly,” nodded Vision.

**“Then skip the spinning rims. We’re on the clock,” ordered Tony. He landed on his landing pad and immediately started to walk inside as the robotic hands started to remove his damaged suit from his body.**

**Loki watches him with a smile on his face.**

“Oh, he’s planning something,” noted Clint.

“Probably mind control,” considered Natasha. “He must have not had a chance to. Tony wouldn’t have any defences against the sceptre if Loki wanted to control him. We would have been fighting Tony in addition to the army if Loki had had a chance to.”

Tony decided staying silent was his best course of action. He was certain Loki hadn’t been able to control him because of the Arc Reactor that had been in his chest at the time. His weakness had become a strength in that moment.

**Tony walks into his own penthouse, weapon less.**

**“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity.”**

**“Actually, I’m planning to threaten you.”**

Steve groaned. “I wouldn’t have said that…”

“All good banter, Steve,” pointed out Tony. “He was intrigued enough to not attack me on sight.”

**“You should have left your armour on for that,” pointed out Loki.**

“Loki must have known Tony was planning something other than to threaten him,” observed Rhodey.

“Oh, he was. I knew if I made a break for the elevator Loki would stop me,” explained Tony. “I was keeping Loki distracted long enough for JARVIS to get me a suit. He had to bring it from the workshop, run all the checks before I could even use it. Even then I hadn’t finished working on the suit though it was useable…In other circumstances, I wouldn’t have taken the risk but I had no choice. I had to use the prototype.”

“It did what it was supposed to though,” agreed Steve, “the suit worked.”

“Could have been better,” Tony mooted. “The Mark VIII was a vast improvement.”

Rhodey whispered in Tony’s ear. “Aren’t all your next generation suits better than the one before it?”

He recognised the teasing tone in his best friend’s voice. Tony grinned back. “Always.”

**Tony walked down the stairs towards his bar stand filled with rows of different alcoholic beverages. “Yeah, it’s seen a bit of mileage. You’ve got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?”**

**Loki laughed softly. “Stalling me won’t change anything.”**

**“No, no. Threatening,” clarified Tony. “No drink? You sure? I’m having one.” Tony picked up a glass and a bottle, pouring a bit into the glass.**

“How can you be so calm?” Wanda marvelled. “I think if I didn’t have the powers I had and I knew I was in a room with a mad-man who could easily control me and I was defenceless, I wouldn’t be like you are now.”

Tony looked at her carefully. “I have years of practice at hiding how scared I truly am.” Briefly he looked down, contemplating whether to tell her, knowing full well the others would hear this too. “I’m more scared than you believe I am. What you see as overconfidence and arrogance is my way of trying to hide how scared I am.” He tipped his head to the side. “Sometimes the overconfidence and arrogance are genuine but it’s not always. It hides something more, a façade to the side of me only a few people ever get to see. I wasn’t ging to show Loki how scared I was. I just wanted to get my suit as quickly as possible and get out of there.”

**Loki turned away towards the window, looking out at the city. “The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?”**

**“The Avengers,” replied Tony. Loki looked a bit confused. “It’s what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ type thing.”**

Steve chuckled. “We’d never called ourselves that. It was Fury.”

“That’s why I said it. A means to an end. Keep Loki focused on me.”

**“Yes, I’ve met them.”**

**Tony smiled. “Yeah. It takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that one. But, let’s do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-god –” Loki looked visibly frustrated at the mention of Thor and turned away. “-A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up the legend. A man with breath-taking anger management issues, a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.” Whilst Tony spoke and Loki was not watching him, he reached for two bracelets sitting behind the bar counter and slipped them onto his wrists.**

“What are they?” queried Sam.

“Homing bracelets for the suits. They were configured to work with any of the suits I made. Even the Mark VII,” explained Tony. “I had these scattered around my apartment in various places. One can never be too careful. It would look conspicuous if I was always wearing them. When Loki turned his back, I took my chance to slip them on. It was a risk I had to take. I hoped he wouldn’t notice.” Tony stroked his chin. “Come to think of it, he didn’t notice.”

Even Thor looked surprised at that revelation. Loki was good at picking up on tricks like that. 

**“That was the plan,” grinned Loki.**

**“Not a great plan.” Tony sipped his drink and started to walk out from behind the bar. “When they come, and they will, they’ll come for you.”**

**“I have an army.”**

**“We have a Hulk.”**

Bruce looked sideways. “Not yet you didn’t.”

“I knew you’d come. Never doubted you,” shrugged Tony. “It seemed obvious you had seen the location of where the Tesseract was. I didn’t believe you would just walk away.” 

**“Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off,” said Loki innocently.**

**Tony walked towards him. “You’re missing the point. There is no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it.” He sipped his drink.**

Clint leaned back. “You can be scary when you want to be…”

“I did go there with the intention to threaten,” hinted Tony.

**Loki walked forwards, a threatening expression on his face, raising the sceptre. “How will your friends have time for me when they’re so busy fighting you?”**

“He did try to control you…” breathed Natasha. “You must have got the suit before he –” She trailed off when she saw the next several moments on screen.

**The sceptre is powering up and Tony is unable to move away in time as Loki tapped Tony on the chest with it. There was a metallic sound as the sceptre hit the Arc Reactor. Nothing happened. Confused, Loki tried again. Once again, nothing happened.**

**“This usually works.”**

“WHAT?” Clint lurched forward. “You’re immune?”

Natasha cricked her neck when she turned quickly to look at Tony. “How did you do it?”

Steve was gaping at the screen. “It didn’t work…”

Tony smirked. “I have a theory.”

“The Arc Reactor,” whispered Sam quietly. “Isn’t it? The little metallic sound. It’s hitting the Arc Reactor in your chest.”

Tony nodded, pleased someone had noticed the difference. “Yep!”

“But how did it shield you?” Clint asked.

“Not sure,” frowned Tony, “but my father was studying the Tesseract. The new element I discovered was formed from his research into it. If it is made of some of the same components it may have given me immunity against being mind controlled. Though, if Loki had moved the sceptre to the side, would the Arc Reactor still be able to defend me?” It was an intriguing thought he would have to look into.

Thor held his chin with his right hand. “Perhaps, if given the right time, you’d be able to create something powerful enough that is able to repel all the Infinity Stones. If your Arc Reactor is capable of protecting you from the power of the Mind Stone then it should be able to withstand the others. Your father’s designs were based on his research into the Tesseract which holds the Space Stone. The evidence is there it can protect against all of them.” 

Tony nodded. “Or I have a suit made entirely with Arc Reactors or the element is laced into the suit itself giving it protection, maybe?” He had a lot to think about. Several ideas had already formed in his head as he’d already come to the conclusion that his Arc Reactor had been capable of repelling the Infinity Stones. But how could he go about it? Could he possibly make himself completely immune to the side-effects from the Stones? Be invincible?

When this was over with, he had a lot to think about. 

**“Well, performance issues, it’s not uncommon. One out of five…”**

Rhodey groaned. “You just had to make that comment, didn’t you?”

**Loki grabbed Tony by the throat and threw him across the room towards the window.**

“You don’t have the suit yet. Why don’t you have the suit yet?” Bucky looked a bit fearful though logic dictated that whatever happened next Tony would be fine as he was right beside them watching the past play out in front of them.

**“JARVIS, anytime now…” said Tony. He tried to get to his feet but Loki grabbed him by the throat again, holding him still.**

“Considering what happened next Loki should have just considered breaking my neck rather than doing what he did,” said Tony quietly.

Natasha threw him a calculated look. “He threw you out the window, didn’t he?”

Tony shrugged noncommittedly.

**“You will all fall before me!”**

**Tony knew instantly what Loki was about to do, ordering JARVIS to deploy the Mark VII.**

“Yeah, you’ve run out of time,” winced Rhodey.

**Loki threw him out the window, freefalling down the tower at high speed towards the ground.**

Steve nearly leapt to his feet. “You never told us this happened!”

Tony raised one eyebrow in surprised. “I didn’t think I needed to?”

“He nearly killed you!” Steve sounded aggravated.

“And I nearly became his puppet too. Gonna get angry about that too?” asked Tony, surprised by how protective Steve was being at him being thrown out the window. “The point is, I had the situation under control.”

“I do not believe JARVIS thought so,” noted Vision.

**The elevator door opens and a red pod shoots past Loki and out the shattered window following Tony’s descent. The pod is scanning the bracelets on Tony’s wrists, acquiring the activation signature and the suit began to form around him.**

“Good thing you found the time to get those bracelets on,” mooted Bucky. “Otherwise, there would be a Stark-shaped splat on the ground.”

Tony blinked. “You had to put it like that, didn’t you?”

Bucky chuckled, one of the first genuine laughs Tony had heard from him.

**Before he could hit the ground, the suit came online and the thrusters engaged and Tony shot back up into the air, towards Loki’s position. The god looked angry at Tony’s survival.**

**“And there’s one other person you pissed off! His name was Phil.”**

Clint was grinning. “What a burn.” He shifted in his seat. “Thanks for that, Tony. Phil needed to be remembered.”

“He did… yeah,” replied Tony, pleasantly surprised by Clint’s joy at knowing he had sniped back in Coulson’s name.

**Loki raised his sceptre but Tony fires at Loki sending the god sprawling backwards.**

**On top of the building the machine activates sending a long stream of energy up into the sky, opening up a portal.**

**On the other side space, the portal to Earth appears and the waiting Chitauri army spills forward into it and out into the skies of New York.**

“They were just waiting for it to open up?” gaped Sam. “How did they know?”

“Best guess is Selvig configured the portal to open to an exact part of space. Loki probably gave him co-ordinates to input,” suggested Bruce. “It’s the only reasonable explanation. They were waiting and ready to come through as soon as it opened.”

**“Right. Army.” Tony shot upwards toward the portal, firing at the Chituari as they descended. Miniature, multiple rocket launchers pop out and several targets are taken down in an instant. Tony dodges their attacks back but he knows there are already too many of them.**

Tony whispered to Rhodey. “Between you and me… I was already panicking there but was trying to deal with the situation at the same time and not let the fear get to me.”

**Down in the city, people look up into the sky, staring at the fire fight in the distance. But then the attackers come towards them, firing at their cars, firing at them, setting buildings on fire. Cars are flung through the air as the citizens ran for their lives. A waitress helps her colleague and a customer to get into the shop and they watch from the window as the attack continues.**

Sam shook his head. “Why did people think they’d be safe inside the shop? The building could have been destroyed.”

“People try to find the safest place they can when they are under attack,” cautioned Natasha. “We all do it. We do not think of the consequences. They probably assumed as they were inside, they didn’t have anything to worry about as the attackers were outside.”

“I’m so glad I managed to talk to the officer in charge and get them to try to lead the public to safer alternatives,” muttered Steve quietly. He had saved lives with that strategy.

**Loki walks out onto the landing pad as the Chitauri continue to attack. He is admiring his soon to be kingdom. His armour materialises around him. Thor lands on the Tower and Loki turns to face him. Thor orders him to turn off the Tesseract or he will destroy it. Loki told him there was no stopping it and there was only war. Thor knows what he has to do.**

**Loki attacks Thor and their two weapons collide. He uses the sceptre as a weapon, blocking Thor’s hammer and firing bursts of energy from the sceptre, one of which blasted part of the letters of Stark’s name off the side of the building.**

“So, you’re the one I should send the bill to then,” grinned Tony. “You wrecked my name on the side of my Tower!”

Thor wilted under Tony’s fake-glare. “That was Loki.”

“Ah, but Loki can’t pay for it, can he?” teased Tony. “I’m just joking.”

**Down below the police converge on the area of attack as the people of New York continue to run and scream for help. Iron Man flies through the air leading a trail of Chitauri towards his tower.**

**The QuinJet booms into the city and Natasha tells Tony over their communications that they were heading north east. Tony made a cutting remark about whether they had stopped for drive-thru but then told them to swing up park as he was going to lay them out for them.**

“You took longer to get there then I thought you would,” said Tony. “You weren’t far behind me when I set off from the Helicarrier.”

“You did go super-sonic though,” pointed out Natasha. “The QuinJet couldn’t go as fast as you. We went as fast as we could. And we weren’t too far behind after the Portal had opened.”

Tony had to give them that. He had pushed the suit to its limits so he could get to his Tower quicker.

**Iron Man flies past where Loki and Thor were fighting, swooping around another bend causing a few of his pursuers to crash into one another. Flying up Tony puts his remaining pursuers in line with the Quinjet. Taking the opportunity, Natasha and Clint take out his pursuers with a machine gun.**

**JARVIS informs Tony they had more incoming. Tony wanted to keep them occupied and headed back towards the portal.**

**Thor and Loki continue to battle savagely. Clint spies the fight from the QuinJet and informs Nat. They bank the jet towards Stark Tower, aiming the mini machine gun at Loki. Loki fires a burst of energy from the sceptre at the Jet as Thor gets back to his feet tackling Loki down hard.**

“You really shouldn’t have tried to take him out,” said Thor. “I know you wanted vengeance but…”

“It would have been useful if the QuinJet had stayed in action,” interrupted Tony. “Sure, you were good on your feet down there, but the Jet would have been useful.”

Clint winced. He had wanted to take Loki out. “I saw the opportunity and took it.” He wasn’t going to be sorry for that.

**The QuinJet spiralled out of control. Steve is hanging on in the back. Clint is trying to control the Jet’s descent but one of the engines are on fire and thick black smoke trials from it. The Jet spins and slows, continuing to drop out of the air as they pass over skyscrapers and then they crash into the ground, sliding across the pavement and gently hitting the side of a building.**

“We were lucky we didn’t cause any civilian casualties with that crash,” intoned Steve. The plan had been to drop him off on the streets whilst Natasha and Clint kept to the air in the Jet, assisting Tony when he needed it. The loss of the QuinJet had subsequently changed their plans.

**Clint and Natasha unfastened their seatbelts and opened the ramp. Steve runs down first followed by Clint and Natasha, each of them with their respected weapons in hand. The four arrive in the middle of a four-way street and Steve tells them they have to get back up to Stark Tower.**

**They stopped, looking up at the portal as a loud primal roar bellowed out. From the portal a massive Chituari Leviathan flies out, carrying hundreds of Chitauri warriors on its back. It passes over them. As it flies between buildings, Chitauri warriors launch away from the Leviathan, attaching themselves to buildings, attacking and killing the civilians inside them.**

Tony shuddered, his mind going back to the one he had seen in Sokovia, before Wanda had used her powers on him. He hated those things.

**Steve watches as the Leviathan continues to fly overhead. “Stark, are you seeing this?”**

**Inside the suit, Tony had seen it. “I’m seeing, still working on believing. Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?”**

“I didn’t want to think about what was happening which was why I changed the subject,” explained Tony.

**“Banner?” Steve was surprised by the question.**

“Did you think I wouldn’t show up?” scrutinised Bruce, looking at Steve.

“I was dubious…” admitted Steve. “But hopeful.”

**“Just keep me posted,” ordered Tony. He is flying alongside the Leviathan now as it wrecked buildings. “JARVIS, find me a soft spot.”**

**Thor holds down Loki forcing him to watch the destruction of the city. “Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?”**

**Loki almost looked frightened, trying to look away. “It’s too late. It’s too late to stop it.”**

“He still doesn’t look right…” said Tony.

“It’s the eyes,” pointed out Thor. “They’re not his usual colour. I’ve noticed it for a while now. Loki may have led the attack but he wasn’t the one behind it, nor did he do so willingly. He put up a fight against us. I don’t think he intended to win the Earth. But he had to make his loss look good.”

Clint didn’t look convinced but didn’t speak.

Tony frowned. “It might make sense as to why you are so adamant, he is on your side now. If he’s finally out of being controlled he could be a strong ally. It’s a possibility we cannot dismiss.”

“Agreed.” Thor was relieved someone was willing to give his brother a chance despite his past misdeeds on Earth. 

**Thor disagreed, said that could stop it together.**

**Loki seemed to briefly consider before a small smile flickered across his face. He stabbed Thor with a small knife in his side, forcing him to keel over.**

“He hesitated before he stabbed you,” noticed Sam. “I think I’m beginning to see it too.”

**“Sentiment,” mocked Loki.**

**Thor rushes forward, kicks Loki and grabs him, lifting him above his head before slamming him back down again. Loki groaned and then rolled off the edge of the building. Thor looked down and saw Loki had landed on a Chitauri Chariot with dozens of Chitauri following his lead through the city.**

**Thor pulled the knife from his side, speckled with a tiny bit of blood.**

“I think he knew if he stayed fighting me, I’d get through to him,” sighed Thor wistfully.

Bruce gently leaned against him. “You know now you have got through to him. He saved us, remember?”

“I know,” agreed Thor, feeling a bit more positive than he had been. 

**Steve runs behind upended taxis, joining Natasha and Clint in hiding behind one. They look up and see Loki flying on his Chitauri Chariot. A chain of explosions followed in his wake as civilians flees the assault. Cars are upended and civilians and authority figure alike make a run for their lives.**

**“They’re fish in a barrel down there,” said Steve, ducking.**

**Chitauri land on the cars by the Avengers. Natasha grabs two small guns and begins to fire at the Chitauri. She told Steve that they had this and that he had to go and help the others. Steve asked them if they thought they could hold them off.**

Rhodey slapped his forehead. “Steve, they already said they could handle it and you still question them about it? For a soldier, in the middle of battle, delaying to clarify is just asking for trouble!”

Steve hadn’t considered it that way before.

**Clint activated his arrows. “Captain. It would be my genuine pleasure.” He pulls one arrow from his pack, nicks it and fires at a Chitauri warrior. It explodes, taking a few of the other warriors close to it out as well.**

**With the distraction, Steve jumps over the bridge and onto the top of a coach, running over it as shots come his way, jumping up as it explodes behind and landing on the ground, rolling back onto his feet and heading away from Clint and Nat’s position.**

**Clint is helping woman and children out of a coach. Small children are being handed to him by desperate parents. He manages to pull open the doors and the remaining passengers flee through the open doors as Clint runs back to join Natasha, notching another arrow into his bow, hitting his mark each time he shoots.**

**Natasha shoots a few more Chitauri and remarks: “Just like Budapest all over again!”**

**Clint looked bewildered. “You and I remember Budapest very differently.”**

“What did happen in Budapest?” Tony enquired, intrigued that the two seemed to remember events differently to one another.

Natasha folded her arms across her chest. “That is on a need-to-know basis.”

“So… only you and Clint know? And probably Fury too.”

Both Natasha and Clint declined to comment on Tony’s assertion. 

**Not far from their position, the cops are continuously firing at the flying chariots, electing no damage. A young cop runs over to his sergeant telling him that it would be an hour before they could scramble the National Guard. The Sergeant wasn’t happy with the news. He yelled hysterically if the army knew what was happening in the city. The young cop asked whether they knew too.**

“Rhodey, did the army know?” Steve wanted to know.

Rhodey considered the question before answering. “Not really. They didn’t know what was going on. I was deployed in the East when this was going down otherwise, I would have got in my suit and come to New York to help.”

**Suddenly Steve lands on a bonnet of a car in front of the two cops, immediately taking charge of the situation. “You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they’re going to be running right into the line of fire. You take them through the basements or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39 th.” **

**The Sergeant gestured to Steve, not being able to see the man’s face due to the mask Steve wore. “Why the hell should I take orders from you?”**

“Because he’s talking sense, that’s why!” Tony yelled at the screen, rolling his eyes at the incompetence shown by the Sergeant.

**Suddenly an explosion occurs behind Steve and the two cops stumble back. Steve turns to face it, raising his shield as two Chitauri attack him. He fought them off with ease as the Cops looked on.**

**The Sergeant immediately turns to his own men behind him. “I need men in those buildings. Lead the people down and away from the streets.” He spoke into his walkie-talkie situated on his shoulder. “We’re gonna set up a perimeter, all the way down to 39 th street.” **

There was a chuckle around the room as the Sergeant gave out Steve’s exact orders.

**Iron Man swerves around a building and comes face to face with the Chitauri Leviathan. He pulls out his miniature multiple rocket launcher and fires. The Leviathan roars in annoyance and the Leviathan turns to follow him.**

**“Well, we got its attention. What the hell was step two?” yelled Tony at JARVIS.**

“Keep it trained on me so it wouldn’t cause too much problem for the rest of you,” sighed Tony. “I tried to keep it as high in the air as possible. I wasn’t very successful.”

**On the bridge, Clint is now using hand-to-hand combat, ramming one of his arrows through the throat of one of the Chitauri. Natasha is leg-strangling one of the other warriors, grabbing its Energy Rifle to attack with, shooting at the incoming warriors and hitting them with the stick. Clint skids on the floor past a warrior, nocks an arrow and fires into the back of the warrior, taking it down.**

**Steve leaps back into the fray just as lightning blasts down from above taking out all the Chitauri warriors in the vicinity, as Thor joins them.**

“You couldn’t have kept on doing that?” Wanda asked. “You just killed them with a single blast.”

Thor looked down at his hands. “It takes a long of energy for me to harness my power. To keep it up on a continuous basis would drain me. I have a lot of reserves but if I did as you suggest, I would risk hurting innocents.”

Wanda looked thoughtful. “That makes sense.”

**“What’s the story upstairs?” asked Steve.**

**“The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable.”**

**Tony spoke over the ear-pieces. “Thor’s right. We got to deal with these guys.”**

**“How do we do this?” queried Natasha.**

**“As a team,” answered Steve immediately.**

**“I have unfinished business with Loki,” said Thor, his intent clear.**

“I think we all did, to be fair,” observed Tony.

**Clint fiddled with his arrows and replied to Thor: “Yeah, well get in line.”**

**Steve told him to save it. “Loki’s going to keep this fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top. He’s gonna need us to…” He stops as he hears a motorbike approaching and runs around to see Bruce Banner arrive.**

**Bruce approached them. “So, this all seems horrible.”**

Sam chuckled. “What an entrance. What a thing to say.”

“I couldn’t think of anything better,” shrugged Bruce.

**“I’ve seen worse,” said Natasha.**

**“Sorry,” apologised Bruce.**

**“No. We could use a little worse,” she replied.**

“We needed the Hulk then,” admitted Natasha. “Worse was good.”

**Steve contacted Tony. “Stark. We got him.”**

**“Banner?” Tony clarified over the ear-piece.**

**“Just like you said,” answered Steve.**

Steve bit his lower lip. “I’m glad you came, Bruce. Surprised but glad you showed up when you did.”

Bruce smiled gratefully.

**Inside the suit, Tony is still leading the Leviathan on a chase. “Then tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.”**

**Tony circles around a building, bringing the Leviathan closer to their location.**

**“I… I don’t see how that’s a party…” said Natasha.**

“Big alien monster… you don’t get it?” Tony simpered.

“I still don’t,” admitted Natasha. “I’m not really one for humour.”

“Huh.”

**Iron Man swoops down the street, with the Leviathan following, barrelling down the street, wrecking cars, heading straight towards the group.**

**Bruce began to walk towards the monster, already knowing what he had to do.**

**“Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.”**

**Bruce wasn’t fazed as he continued to walk closer to the Leviathan. “That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry.”**

“I just have to stop suppressing it,” said Bruce. “And he comes out… Though that time there was the smoothest transition I’ve ever had as the Hulk. It’s like he was eager to help…”

“Maybe it helped you wanted him to be there instead of you?” suggested Bucky.

“Maybe…” Bruce’s lips twitched.

**Bruce’s body started to swell and turn green as the Hulk emerged, clutching his right hand into a fist before smashing it into the nose of the Chitauri Leviathan causing the creature to begin tipping over 360 degrees.**

**Tony circles back around and fires a small missile into the skin of the Leviathan which had been exposed due to the vicious punch of the Hulk. Steve raised his Shield to protect himself and the others from the flying pieces of the Leviathan as it exploded into pieces, meat and armour falling all around them, as its head landed with a resounding crash in front of them.**

**From above and from their other positions around the city the Chitauri army watches in horror as their Leviathan was destroyed, screeching in anger.**

**The Hulk roared in triumph as Tony landed in the circle as the Avengers were finally assembled at last.**

“I have to say that was epic. The way you all stood in a circle, defying what was expected of Earth. They didn’t intend on any resistance but you all showed you had some fight left in you and were determined to keep on going,” praised Sam.

Steve nodded. “It took a while… But we finally assembled together when we needed to be the most. We’re a team, even though recent events mean we aren’t as much as one now… We work best when we are together, united in one goal. We shouldn’t fight. We should stay united.”

And Steve was determined to try to fix what he had helped cause, even if it took him years to do it.

For the sake of the world, the Avengers had to stand united.

_And one day we will._

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> I quite enjoyed writing their reactions to Tony's talk with Loki, plus I'm dropping more hints into what may be important ideas going forward. Plus, Tony has noticed Loki's eyes, as has Thor.
> 
> The next chapter will probably have fewer reactions in it because it is more action-based. I have tried my best though! 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted next Sunday 21st March! 
> 
> Until then, 
> 
> the-writer1988


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